Become a Career Mentor
- About the program
- Mentor Business Areas
- The Role of the Mentor
- The Screening and Matching Process
- Register your Interest
- The Annual Mentoring Cycle
- Mentor Testimonials
- Resources for Current Mentors
About the Program
The Career Mentoring Program matches selected graduate students with business professionals in a mentoring partnership. The aim of this program is to assist students (mentees) with their career development and transition from University into the workforce and to engage business professionals in a mutually beneficial partnership. Mentors assist their mentees in identifying career goals and professional development plans.
Participating students are linked with mentors based on their shared interests and area of specialty.
This program gives you the opportunity to contribute to the community while at the same time, differentiating your career from your colleagues by further developing leadership and coaching skills.
The program is affiliated with the university wide Career Mentor Connection and has been running since 2003. It is an extremely popular program amongst the student body with over 150 applications each year competing to be matched with the approx. 50 volunteer mentors participating so far.
Mentor Business Areas
The Graduate Careers Centre welcomes interest from prospective mentors. We would like to hear from business professionals with experience in any of the following areas:
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The Mentor Role
The role of the mentor is to partner with the mentee in the development of their professional understanding and career goals including:
- Guiding students to achieve self-reliance
- Providing insight into particular professional fields and networks
- Challenging, motivating, inspiring and encouraging
- Being patient and building trust
- Identifying assumptions and preconceptions, and offering alternative perspectives
- Encouraging self-directed reflection, analysis and problem solving
Recognising that our mentors are busy professionals, we strongly encourage mentees to take primary responsibility for organising meetings and initiating communication. The usual commitment from a mentor is five or more face-to-face meetings a year, with regular (usually monthly) contact via phone or email.
The Screening and Matching Process
Because of the popularity of the program the student selection process is competitive. Students must progress through a screening process to ensure their suitability for the program. We also ask mentors to register online to ensure we understand your background experience and skills in order for us to match you appropriately with a mentee. Additionally (as per requirements of standard duty of care process) we ask you to provide us with details of two referees.
When matching mentors and mentees, we look at areas of study, professional experience, and interest areas of both individuals and try to match accordingly.
Registering your Interest
The registration/application period is from January to March each year, but we welcome and take expressions of interest from future mentors throughout the year.
Click here to register as a career mentor for the 2008 program.
The Career Mentoring Program Yearly Cycle
Mid/Late April - The Program Launch Event
The program officially starts in mid/late April with a launch event held at the University when mentors and mentees meet for the first time. It is also a good opportunity for mentors to network with each other.April to November - Develop Your Mentoring Relationship
The mentoring program then runs throughout the University calendar until November, with mentors and mentees managing their meetings and communication themselves.June/July – Mentoring Newsletter, Issue 1
A newsletter is sent to all mentors and mentees keeping them up to date with the mentoring program news, events and tips for both mentors and menteesJuly/ August - Follow up by Mentoring Co-ordinator
The Mentoring Co-ordinator makes follow up phone calls to both mentors and mentees to offer support and to see how their mentoring relationship is progressing.August/September - Mentoring Newsletter, Issue 2
The second issue of the mentoring newsletter is sent to mentors and menteesLate November – The Program Closing Event
To officially thank our mentors and to mark the end of the yearly mentoring program, mentees and mentors are invited to attend the closing function at the university.