Career Mentor. Manuel Kehrer, Business Consultant, SDU Business, the University of Southern Denmark

Transcription

1 Career Mentor Introduction This guide is an inspiration catalogue on how to go about your role as a mentor or mentee, and how a mentor programme with an international student might look like. This guide is based on the existing career mentor programme from the Career Centre. However for the International Brainstormers project, a fourth meeting about job Shadowing is added. Enjoy! Manuel Kehrer, Business Consultant, SDU Business, the University of Southern Denmark Role as a Mentor As a mentor you can help the student to find his/her way into the Danish labour market and be an eye opener for the mentee s competences and career wishes. Your job is not to find a job for the mentee this is the responsibility of the mentee. Your role is to mentor, inspire and share your experiences. It is not your role to tell the mentee what to do, but to invite to action by asking good questions, give concrete tasks and use your network. Besides this, you have to share your experiences with your mentee. You can for example explain how you got your current job and how you handled the transition period from study- to work life and how you managed your career afterwards. You can also explain how you found out what you wanted in work life, what your strengths/competences were, and how they have developed since then. Last, but not least, it is important to instil courage and self-confidence to the mentee by acknowledging his/her worth, strengths and resources from what he/she tells you. A typical mentor programme A typical mentor programme covers 3 meetings with duration of 1-2 hours. However, for International Brainstormers the programme is extended to 4 meetings. The meetings are arranged by the mentee and will normally take place at your workplace. Before each meeting we recommend that the mentee prepares an agenda for the meeting. Experience shows that most of the clarification of the mentee takes place in between the meetings. This can be strengthened by giving concrete tasks to the mentee and to encourage written notes in the clarification process. Role as a Mentee

2 You must be prepared to work actively and have motivation to work with yourself. The mentor programme can help you with clarification, but only if you want it. Your mentor can help you finding your way on the Danish labour market and be an eye opener for your competences and career wishes. The role of the mentor is not to answer what you should do, but what you can do, and by this strengthening your awareness of which way to follow. It is your responsibility to translate your mentor s knowledge and experiences to concrete action. The mentor will only coach you by asking challenging questions. Good advice As a mentee you should pay attention to the following: 1. It is your responsibility to book meetings with your mentor 2. You must prepare the agenda for the meetings. Be prepared and send the agenda in advance 3. Before the first meeting: Send a brief introduction of yourself, who you are and what you expect of the mentor programme 4. Respect the time limits of your mentor 5. Think about what you want to get out of your mentor programme. What questions do you have to your mentor? 6. Write notes which help you to remember meetings, tasks, etc. 7. Remember that you mentor is not your counsellor for your master thesis 8. You are an ambassador for the University of Southern Denmark. Leave a good impression for the other students to follow 9. Be open minded and positive for new ideas and take them as chances for improvements 10. Be honest to your mentor: what you can and what you want. 11. If there are challenges during the programme, please contact the consultant in the Career Centre. Structure of the meetings There are many ways to structure the duration. This example prepares the ground for 3 meetings between mentor and mentee. We hope you get inspired and find the model which suits you best. The first meeting: Matching of expectations and frames of the programme Clarify the frames of the programme, start and end date, as well as the meetings duration, frequency and structure (e.g. agenda)

3 How can the mentee benefit from the programme? E.g. clarity of what a mentee can and wants with his/her education, knowledge about the labour market, job opportunities, codes of conduct, etc. You will benefit by clarifying why you are in this programme and what you expect. Results Clear agreements and frames for the programme. The mentee s wishes for the programme are formulated in concrete questions or goals, e.g. how and when can I use my competences from my education in other professional contexts? It is important to understand the mentee s background before further development in the programme. Approach It is important that the established focus is concrete and easy to handle. A concrete focus can be made by a question which covers the mentee s expectations for the programme. The mentee has already phrased one or more central questions for this clarification process which you can ask about during the programme and adjust if necessary. As preparation for this meeting, the mentee is asked to send his/her CV and a short proposal for what he/she expects from the mentor programme. Mentor s role The mentor s role is to ask clarifying and challenging questions, listen, show interest and identify the mentee s expectations and hopes. At the same time, the mentor is supposed to sharpen the mentee s focus and help to set up concrete goals for the programme and his/her career wishes. The second meeting: competences and career wishes - To work with the mentee s frames and visions for his/her own work life: What are the mentee s career wishes and how can they be met? - To identify the mentee s competences and strengths in order to clarify how they can be utilized in the best manner for the job application. Results: - The mentee identifies what he/she wants with her education and bring his/her dreams for the labour market into focus: What is my dream job? - The mentee is able to express his/her competences and acquire tools to use the competences actively in the job application process.

4 Approach: In this phase, it is important that the mentee talk as much as possible: What does he/she want with the education? What are the ambitions for the work life in Denmark? How does the dream job look like? What are the barriers you meet when you apply for job in Denmark and how can they be crossed? As preparation for this meeting you might ask the mentee to compose a job ad for his/her dream job. Regarding to the identification of competences, you can possibly ask the mentee to make a list of the things he/she thinks he/she is good at, and hereafter discuss this list in comparison to his/her CV. Mentor s role Again, it is your role as a mentor to ask clarifying questions, listen and show interest. Examples of questions could be: What have been particularly motivating for you during your study?, What can get you up in the morning in your work life?, How do you combine your interests with your professional competences?, How do your work tasks look like? and How can you apply your personal resources? The third meeting: Opportunities at the labour market, round-off and evaluation - To identify the mentee s opportunities at the labour market Results: - The mentee gains more insight into how the Danish labour market looks and how the opportunities are in order to get off to a good career start. Approach: You might put your own network at the mentee s disposal, so the mentee is in contact with relevant people. It should not be seen as an employment agency, but rather as a means for the mentee to recognize and be aware of different and alternative career paths. You can also charge the mentee with making concrete research assignments in order to gain the same kind of knowledge. Finally, you are going to take stock of the programme s results and phrase the next steps for the mentee. If the mentee has become more clarified about for instance choose of courses, internships, networking or job applications, you might jointly formulate a forward plan of action, which ensures that knowledge is put into practice. Here, you also have the chance make possible meetings to stay in touch after the termination of the programme. This opportunity is of course optional.

5 Examples of conversation topics: - Personal development - Personal SWOT analysis - Tools to structuring of time - Job application, including CV and writing the application, as well as job interviews and salary negotiations - Learning styles - Career paths - Work life balance - Performance and development interview - Personal appearance - Presentation techniques - Network and networking tools like LinkedIn - Management - Industrial PhD - Education - Efficiency and Effectiveness - Development of competences - Internship - Topics for master thesis - Career and children - Prioritizing - Decisive competences - Stress management - Moving abroad - Project Management - Conflict Management The fourth meeting: Job Shadow Just another day at the office The international student is going to explore an ordinary day at a Danish company and, if possible, follow the mentor in his/her working day including meeting activities, lunch with coworkers, desk work, etc. Result:

6 The International student gains insight into how a Danish workplace functions, including the working environment, tone, structure of organisation (the relatively flat structure), in short the Danish work culture.