Mentoring Pathways
Drop In Clinic – Insights
The Mentoring Pathways Drop-In Clinic was hosted online and in-person on Tuesday 21 February. The event was an opportunity for mentors and mentees to ask any questions, talk through challenges they were facing on their mentoring journey, and ask for additional guidance or support to make their mentoring experience as successful as possible
We have summarised some key talking points from our conversations on the day. We hope you find these a helpful insight into how other mentoring partnerships are progressing and gain new inspiration for your mentoring sessions.
Key Talking Points
Additional Resources for Student Mentees at Birkbeck
The Value of Face-to-Face Meetings
- Where possible, we recommend that mentoring partnerships meet at least once in person. This can help strengthen the mentoring relationship and create variety in the content and structure of your sessions.
- Some mentors were able to invite their mentee into their offices for a tour and to meet other colleagues. Mentees shared that this had been a highlight of their mentoring experience so far.
Embracing Different Approaches to Mentorship
- We found that each partnership had embraced a flexible approach to mentorship.
- Some mentoring partnerships preferred to arrange mentoring sessions according to a regular schedule (e.g. on the first Friday of every month), whereas others found more value in organising sessions on an ad-hoc basis.
Keeping an Open Mindset
- We encouraged all participants to keep an open mindset to mentorship and explore the ways in which mentors could support mentees beyond practical career advice.
- Consider using your mentoring session as an opportunity to brainstorm different pathways and priorities for the students’ future career. For example, you could explore what elements of a job are ‘non-negotiable’ for a student – such as location/working environment/team dynamic etc.
If you have any further questions or comments about the Mentoring Pathways programme, please contact Emily Jeffery (Alumni Engagement Officer) on e.jeffery@bbk.ac.uk