Why is IEEE offering a mentoring
program?
IEEE has
always focused on career development. We believe
this program can be an important component of
our career development offerings.
Who can participate in the program?
Participation is open to all IEEE
members who are above the Student Member
grade.
What is “The Training
Connection”?
The Training Connection is a vendor that developed a
Web-based mentoring program to facilitate the
matching process of a mentor to a mentee. This
program allows the mentee to self-select their
mentor from a list of potential mentor
candidates.
What is a mentor?
A mentor is someone who has experience,
has gained wisdom and knowledge from their
experiences, and can offer insight, guidance, and
inspiration to another person. Their knowledge
can come in many forms, depending on their
experience level and years in the profession. A
mentor can provide guidance and also learn
from the mentee with whom they are partnered. The
working mentoring partnership is a learning and
working experience in teamwork. The
one-to-one partnership can provide many insights
into developing professional relationship
building.
What is a mentee?
A mentee is someone who has a passion
for learning. They have made a
commitment of time and energy to engage in a
mentoring partnership in the hopes of learning
from a mentor’s wisdom and experience.
The mentee is leading the mentoring
partnership by setting their goals and
expectations and then selecting the mentor they feel
best fits their goals.
Who selects the mentoring
partners?
The IEEE mentoring
program uses the “informal style” of
mentoring, where the mentee self-selects their
mentor from a database of available IEEE
members who have volunteered to participate in the
program. The search criteria is selected
by the mentee and can be determined by their
geographical preference (country, state, or city) or
by technical competencies based on the IEEE
technical societies.
What is my obligation to the mentoring partnership?
We would like each mentoring partner to
commit to at least two hours per month for the
success of their mentoring partnership.
Communication between the mentoring partners
can be by e-mail, by phone, or in person, all
at their own choosing.
What kind of commitments
should I expect?
Each participant in a mentoring
partnership should be committed to giving time
and effort to develop their partnership. They need
an understanding of their role and
responsibilities, and each partner needs to stay in
touch and follow an action plan that defines goals
and outlines expectations for the partnership
(use of phone or e-mail, length of meetings,
how often they meet, etc.).
What should I expect
to do in a mentoring partnership?
Initially, you will have two forms to
complete that capture your basic information,
technical interests, educational background, and
interests you bring to a mentoring
partnership. If you are a mentee, you will
then search the available mentors in the program to
find one you feel matches your mentoring
needs. When you find a potential mentor, you
send an e-mail asking to begin a mentoring
partnership. Once accepted, you and your
mentor will begin discussing how the partnership
will work and can develop a mentoring action plan to
achieve your goals. The mentoring
partnership will last for one year and, if you
and your partner feel the partnership is not
progressing toward the agreed goals, the
partnership can be closed early.
What resources are available
to the mentoring partners with this
program?
The mentoring program
has a resource library that contains the Informal
Mentoring Guide designed to provide practical
information for beginning, maintaining, and
ending your mentoring partnership. This guide
will help you complete the profile and
application forms, understand the roles and
responsibilities for each partner, and offer
guidelines in the steps to review and select
your mentoring partner. Other features include
a calendar, a private diary for each mentoring
partner, and an open forum to all
participants.
Where do I go for more information?
Please visit the IEEE
Mentoring Program page for more information.
If you have any questions, please contact the IEEE
Mentoring Program Coordinator at IEEEmentoring@ieee.org.
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