Who Can Be A Mentor?

All Trinity Alumni can sign up to be mentors, either to current students looking for early career guidance or to fellow Alumni who might be seeking advice on further progression or career change.

Your support can be valuable to mentee at any point in your career:

• If you only graduated a few years ago – you can share your insight into finding a first job, applications and interviews, making the most of your time at university, and how to successfully transition into working life.
• If you are further into your career – you likely have a deep knowledge of the industry sector you work in, and possibly other sectors as well. You are also well-equipped to help students/alumni with longer-term career planning and goal setting, and to help them build confidence and resilience.
• If you are self-employed – Trinity has many entrepreneurial students who are keen to start their own businesses. These students would greatly value your advice on the challenges and rewards of being self-employment.
• If you are a postgraduate researcher or an academic – many students/alumni who consider academic careers can benefit from your experience of academia and of winning research positions and funding.

What is involved?

When volunteering as a mentor, you choose your level of commitment – this can range from answering a few questions over email through to an ongoing mentoring relationship that may last several months. You are in control of how much time & energy you can give to mentoring and change that level of commitment as you see fit. We recommend taking on a maximum of 2 mentoring relationships at any one time unless you feel comfortable taking on others.

The mentor's role is to help by sharing their experience and insights. This does not necessarily involve helping to organise work or offer employment. Mentors may do this at their own discretion however it is important to note this is not expected as part of this program and not reasonable for a mentee to demand.

Mentors Can Typically Offer

Career Inspiration & Insights:

• Share information on your role/field to let them know if it is an area suited to them.
• Share your career path to date (challenges/obstacles and successes) to inspire students.
• Provide insights into the range of roles in your industry/sector.
• Provide insights on career pathways and progression.

Professional Development:

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

All mentors will have their own unique set of skills & insights. We do not expect you to be able to help all mentees across their various goals/objectives. For career development advice beyond your scope as an alumni mentor, we ask you to please refer mentees to the Trinity Careers Service.

Online

Request to join our private Alumni Mentoring LinkedIn group. Trinity Development & Alumni will then verify your status as a Trinity graduate. 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 engage with mentees. You can view other group members 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].

We ask mentees to take the lead in reaching out however we recommend you advertise your availability mentor main feed to encourage a suitable mentee to connect with you.

In Person

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

• Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences & Business – Autumn (October/November)
• STEM & Health Sciences – Early Spring (February)

Each year, Trinity Development & Alumni do an active call-out for mentors to participate in the months leading up to both events, please keep an eye out!

Responding to a Mentoring Request

Plan your time commitment - Mentoring can be time-consuming; be realistic about how much time you have for the mentee before responding to their message. If you are unable to take on a new mentee, please let them know by politely declining.

Ask for more information if you need it - If you are not sure what this mentee wants to learn from you, you do not know enough about them or you want to get a better understanding of the commitment involved, you can follow up with them before accepting them as a mentee. 

Manage their expectations - If your time is limited, tell them that - and give them a realistic idea of how quickly they will hear back from you, what you will be able to help them with and what is outside of your scope as a mentor to provide.

Thank mentees for their interest - Approaching a mentor takes time and thought and can be nerve-wracking, so a kind response will be appreciated even if you are not able to take on a new mentoring opportunity at the time. 

You Have Accepted A Mentee, What's Next?

• Set objectives together – Together, from the beginning, to set clear goals & objectives for what the mentee hopes to achieve in the timeframe agreed. 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. Mentees are encouraged to take the lead in driving the mentoring relationship so encourage your mentee to take the initiative in communication.
• Encourage them to reflect & take ownership of their own career goals - Encourage your mentee to be open-minded and to reflect on more basic preconceptions about their future: What do they really want from their career? What do they want their daily life to be like? Why do they want to take this path? Your mentee may have a misunderstanding of your field or unrealistic expectations. Do your best to clarify, demystify and prepare your mentee for the realities of the career path they are interested in in a tactful and constructive way. 
• Support, don’t solve – However effective direct intervention/problem solving might be in the short term, it is always better to offer guidance that empowers mentees to develop and rely on their own abilities. 
• Be Mindful - While a mentoring relationship involves mutual respect, trust and communication the power differentials between a mentor and mentee are always present, and easy to overlook or misinterpret. To be an effective and reliable mentor means protecting yourself from burn out, uncomfortable situations by maintaining professionalism in all circumstances and following the code of conduct outlined in the following section.

Where Can I Meet With My Mentee 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, a common space in your workplace 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 

Should I include an invitation to my place of work or for workplace experience?

This is entirely up to you as an individual mentor. You can decide to offer a work experience invitation to someone whom you were initially mentoring however there is no agreement or expectation for mentors to provide job opportunities, review business venture proposals or course projects or recruit them for open positions at your place of employment.

What if My Mentee Cannot Meet My Objectives Or Help Me with a Specific Issue?

It is not a failure on their part (nor yours) if what your mentee needs does not fit within your scope as a mentor. In that case, you should honestly discuss this with your mentee and either work together to set different objectives or politely agree to end the mentoring relationship, referring them instead to the Trinity Careers Service where they can book an appointment with a career consultant.

How Can I Leave the Programme?

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.