Assisterhood Program Prepares For US Expansion

Mentoring program Assisterhood is poised to take its first steps into the US market, with long-term plans to establish a presence in Europe later in the year.

“Global expansion and global domination is in progress,” founder Linh Diep told LBB.

The expansion into the US came about “accidentally, as all good things do,” sparked by one of Assisterhood’s mentors, Souad Saied, formerly the managing director at HERO Sydney. As she prepared to move to Los Angeles, she told Linh she wanted to stay involved in the program.

“She knew that our online program had started, and with her move, she asked if she could be our first official post in the US. We said, of course, why not? Let’s do it,” said Linh, who is also a senior account director at Ogilvy.

“So she is our first person in the US, and we’re going to pilot that as an extension of our online program.”

At its core, Assisterhood is a 1:1, six-month mentoring program that matches women, non-binary and culturally-underrepresented people in the communications industry with mentors.

The program initially launched in Brisbane, and has since expanded to Melbourne and Sydney and added an online format. Being online has meant Assisterhood can reach participants across Australian regions including Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania, plus industry-goers in New Zealand.

Assisterhood’s impact is centred around three key pillars: confidence, industry-specific skills, and community. “There’s some sort of superpower that people unlock when you have a mentor, or a senior person in your corner dedicated to listening to you and delivering your goals,” Linh said. “That’s the simple fact of it.”

Whilst this has remained a core truth, Assisterhood has evolved over the last eight years.

“We did change our brand positioning from ‘females for females’ to ‘underrepresented people for underrepresented people’ because we thought, there's a certain type of person that goes into the leadership team, and we want to change that makeup,” Linh said.

“We realised the power of having someone that does look like they come from an underrepresented group in a position of power, and how much of an impact that has on a career.”

The mentorship program extends across all sectors of the communications industry, covering advertising, production, media, digital, tech, design, and marketing.  The program has a team of 22 volunteers – most of whom are former mentees who have chosen to give back to the program – and 85+ mentors.

“They’ve gotten so much out of it that they want to continue to invest back and remain involved with the community,” said Linh.

​Applications for the next edition of Assisterhood open this Monday, March 31. The 2025 program will include a revamped application process, Q&A Info Night, and the return of the online offering.

Prospective mentees will be able to apply via a questionnaire available on the website. One of the questions to answer is, ‘Who would you like to be mentored by and why?’

“We showcase all our wonderful mentors who volunteer their time to be part of the program on the website, and we really encourage people to choose a person and spend some time going through the website seeing what the mentors have supplied," Linh said.

"They do put in a bit of time to write about themselves, beyond what you can find on LinkedIn."