Why become a mentor?
Mentoring isn't just about giving back, it's about levelling up your own game. Think of it as a supercharged learning experience for both mentors and mentees.
What's in it for you?
You get to share your expertise, which is a great way to solidify your own knowledge. But you also get to learn from the mentees and create a stronger personal network.
Mentoring sessions are NOT like classes at school. You are NOT expected to deliver 2 hour lectures, but rather engage on hands-on topics with a small group of mentees.
Our mentees are usually experienced professionals. They will challenge each other but they will also sometimes challenge your thinking and show you new perspectives.
Mentoring is the best practice for picking interesting discussion topics, for finding relatable personal stories, for keeping conversations structured, relevant and engaging. You will thank yourself for doing it.
Becoming a mentor
We usually have 2 Mentoring Program sessions - one during spring and one in autumn. This is the autumn one.
We first open registrations for mentors to apply - anyone can apply as a mentor, on the condition that they have relevant professional experience and a desire to share the knowledge.
We ask every mentor to propose a topic they would like to focus their sessions on. Then we meet all the mentors and sometimes topics are changed or merged, as we try to encourage 2 or 3 mentors to work together with the same group.
Our recommendation is for every track to have at least 2 mentors, but 3 might be even better.
Preparing sessions
You will need to prepare a clear description of the program and what mentees should expect is beneficial as they will know what is the right track for them to join.
Each session should have an agenda, a short summary of ideas / bullet points that would be presented / covered during the sessions.
We also noticed that mentors alignment would be very helpful in terms of the preferred communication tool - we noticed that Whatsapp works best for mentees during the program, however Slack is also an option.
Meeting your mentees
Mentors usually allocate between 1.5h to 2.5h to every meeting depending on the mentors availability. We noticed that both mid-day and evening sessions are working.
If more mentors meet the same group of mentees they can decide to share the meeting agenda or to take turns and alternate.
Mid-day sessions are good as people are not driving, cooking, or anything else, they are really focused on the topic, however, when the session end, it really ends.
Evening sessions are good as they can be a bit longer, no limited time for Q&A, however, mentees might be also involved in other activities.
Become a mentor
Complete the form and someone in the team will contact you