Welcome to Alumni Mentoring

Who can benefit from mentoring?

Mentoring is a relationship between a ‘mentee’ and a more experienced ‘mentor’. At Trinity College Dublin, we offer two forms of mentoring:

Alumni to Student Mentoring – Connecting alumni with current students. 

Alumni to Alumni mentoring – Connecting alumni to fellow alumni of all ages, whether recent graduates or more mature alumni looking for advice on career progression or change. 

What does Alumni Mentoring include?

Wherever you are in your studies or career trajectory, we hope you can benefit from connecting with a world-wide community of alumni across a vast array of sectors and industries.

It is important for mentees to understand that Mentors are busy professionals volunteering their time and experience. Their capacity to provide guidance might vary. Likewise, the mentor's role is only to help by sharing their experience and expertise, and not necessarily to help organise work or offer employment. 

Alumni Mentors can offer the following:

Career Inspiration & Insights:

• Let you know about their role/field of work to see if it is suited to you.
• Provide insights into the range of roles in their industry/sector.
• Provide insights on career pathways and progression.
• Share their experiences, challenges & lessons learned after graduation that might be relevant to you.

Professional Development:

• Advice on how to network or find job opportunities in a specific area or industry.
• Help you develop a better understanding of your own career goals.
• Help you develop strategies to optimise your CV/LinkedIn profile.
• Help you develop strategies to help you prepare or better perform in interviews.

Each alumni mentor is different and will have their own unique set of skills & insights. For help with any additional career development or advice beyond the scope of your alumni mentor, please refer to the Trinity Careers Service.

How to Connect with a Mentor

Online:

Request to join our private Alumni Mentoring LinkedIn group. Trinity Development & Alumni will then verify your status as a Trinity graduate or current student (for the later we will request your student number). This process can take 1-2 business days, or up to 4 days during busy sign-up periods.

Once verified, you will have access to our LinkedIn group, where you can reach out and first engage with alumni mentors. You can view potential alumni mentors by clicking ‘show all’ in the box in the upper right-hand corner of the group page [if using the mobile app, this appears directly under the name of the page, access by clicking on where it lists the number of people in the group]. You can reach out to mentors via private message, or you can advertise your desire to be mentored in a specific area/sector or skill in the main feed of the chat so that a suitable mentor can reach out to you.

In-Person:

For current students, Trinity Development & Alumni and the Careers Service host two annual in-person mentoring events per academic year. At these events, you will have the opportunity to network with successful and inspirational mentors across multiple industries and sectors. The exact dates of these events vary on year however please see the general timeline below:

For Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences & Business Students – Autumn (October/November)

For STEM & Health Science Students – Early Spring (February)

Please keep an eye out for the promotion and registration of these events via Careers Service or Trinity Development & Alumni communications.

Tips on sending a mentoring request:

Whether you first connect with your mentor online or in-person, we encourage mentees to be proactive in their approach to engaging with mentors. See our tips below on how to first reach out to a mentor.

• Introduce yourself. E.g. if you are a student, let your mentor know what year you are in and what you are studying.
• Tell them about your career ideas and plans. If you do not have any yet, say so – mentors will be able to help you get a feel for their chosen industries, don’t be afraid to explore!
• Be clear about what you hope to gain from mentoring. For example: 

• “I want to explore your job role/industry so I can understand if I could be happy and successful in it”
• “How can I pitch the skills I am building through my degree to a future employer?”
• “Do you know any pathways through which I can develop my skills further?”
• “How can I stand out from the crowd and make myself more employable?”
• “I am looking for assistance with networking”.
• “Can you do a review of my CV/LinkedIn profile?”

• Always check your spelling and grammar and ensure your message is polite and professional.
• Once sent, a mentor should get back in touch with a reply to your query. Depending on their availability, they will either accept your request or decline your request with an explanation. 

Don’t be discouraged if mentors are unable to accept your request at any given time! Our mentors are volunteers with busy lives – many have demanding jobs, families and other commitments. If you do not receive a reply within 7 days, you can send them a reminder message or approach another mentor instead.

Please contact Trinity Development and Alumni at alumnimentoring@tcd.ie if you continue to have trouble connecting with a mentor. At Trinity College Dublin, mentoring is self-directed however we recommend that you engage in only mentoring relationship at a time.

You’ve connected with a mentor, what’s next?

• Find out more about your mentor: You can take the lead in this by telling them more about yourself. Where are you from? What are your interests? Why did you choose Trinity? What work experience, volunteering and student activities have you done?
• Set clear & reasonable goals: Be reasonable in your expectations of your mentor and the time commitment involved. We recommend that you engage in one mentoring relationship at a time. Work together to set clear goals & objectives and discuss how/when you will contact each other (e.g. once a month, by email, in-person, by phone or online via Teams/Zoom). We encourage you to use the Mentor/Mentee Agreement & Mentoring Tracker to help with this.
• Be Proactive: You are expected to be proactive in the mentoring relationship and ensure that you are progressing in your goals. Follow through with appointments made and try to make progress independently in the times between your conversations. Likewise, let them know if & when you may be away, uncontactable or if for any reason you are unable to continue the mentoring relationship.
• Be Courteous: Your mentor’s time is valuable, and they are generously offering it up to help you, so show them that you value it. Be sure you thank your mentor regularly and always follow the best practice principles & code of conduct outlined in the following section.

Where can I meet with my mentor in-person?

For mentees/mentors able to meet up in person, we recommend meetings take place in a public location, such as on Trinity’s campus or a convenient coffee shop. It is best to avoid any venues where alcohol is served. If you are looking for a place to meet on campus, you are welcome in our Alumni Room in East Chapel. The room is open to all alumni from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. We also have a meeting room, which can be booked in advance by contacting alumni@tcd.ie 

What if my mentor can’t meet my objectives or help me with a specific issue?

It is not a failure on their part (nor yours) if what your mentor is able to offer does not fit with your needs. In that case, you should honestly discuss this with your mentor and either work together to set different objectives or politely agree to end the mentoring relationship. If the relationship ends early, don’t be discouraged and please try approaching a different mentor.

For help with career development or advice beyond the scope of alumni mentoring, please refer to the Trinity Careers Service where you can book an appointment with a career consultant via your MyCareer Portal.

How can I leave the program?

We understand that circumstances change. If at any point you need to leave the mentoring program, that is completely fine. If you have any active mentors at the time you wish to leave, please make sure to let them know before leaving the program. You always have the option to re-join the mentoring programme at another point in time.

Core Principles and Code of Conduct

Alumni Mentoring at Trinity College Dublin has a duty of care to ensuring an enjoyable, fulfilling experience that is mutually beneficial to both mentors and mentees.

It is expected that all participants adhere to the core principles and code of conduct set out by Trinity Development and Alumni (TDA) below:

Core Principles

• Mutual Respect: Mentoring relationships are grounded in mutual respect and trust. Mentors and Mentees must always engage with each other and TDA Staff in a mindful, polite and professional manner.
• Effective Communication: Mentors and Mentees are committed to proactive and effective communication, always setting clear & appropriate boundaries and expectations.
• Personal Development: Mentoring celebrates an openness to new experiences & lifelong learning, an ongoing desire for professional and personal growth.

Code of Conduct

• All participants in the programme must be over 18 years of age.
• Mentors and mentees are not expected to divulge sensitive or personal information as part of the mentoring process. Should a mentor or mentee be comfortable in sharing such information, both parties must respect that confidence.
• The mentoring relationship is a professional friendship. Mentors and mentees cannot enter romantic and/or physical relationships with each other, nor can mentors and mentees engage in the sending of inappropriate or intimate material online.
• Mentors and mentees both have an obligation to use their mentoring relationship wisely and not to engage in behaviour that is inappropriate, harmful or damaging to each other, wider participants in the program or to Trinity College Dublin.
• The responsibility for creating a successful and beneficial mentoring relationship is shared between mentor and mentee. E.g. Preparing for mentoring meetings and respecting each other’s time.

At any point, if you are uncomfortable about any aspect of the mentoring relationship. Please reach out to alumnimentoring@tcd.ie. Should mentors or mentees violate the code of conduct & best practice principles outlined by Trinity Development & Alumni, it will result in their removal from the programme permanently.

Seeking Support

Should you at any point run into any issues, please report them to Trinity Development & Alumni at alumnimentoring@tcd.ie. This is important, not just for your benefit, but for all members of our alumni mentoring network. 

Where the need for guidance goes beyond the scope of Alumni mentoring, all Trinity students have access to careers consultants, resources & support provided by the Careers Service. Graduates can also avail of ongoing support from the careers service, please see here for more details.

Trinity students are also able to seek support on other issues such as finance, personal counselling and /or disabilities via Student Services.