IEEE Mentoring Program FAQs

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IEEE Young Professionals

Following are answers to IEEE member frequently asked questions.

 

Frequently asked questions

  1. Why is IEEE offering a mentoring program? IEEE has always focused on career development and established this program to complement other IEEE career-development offerings.
  2. Who can participate in the program? Participation is open to all IEEE members (all grades) and Society Affiliates.
  3. What is a mentor? Mentors are people who have experience, have 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. Mentors can provide guidance and also learn from the mentees 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.
  4. What is a mentee? Mentees are people who have 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. Mentees lead the mentoring partnership by setting their goals and expectations and then selecting the mentor they feel best fits their goals.
  5. 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 (all grades) and Society Affiliates who have volunteered to participate in the program. The search criteria is selected by the mentee and can be filtered by geographical preference (country/region, state, or city), types of mentees participants are willing to mentor (student, professional), mentoring areas (career, educational, leadership, technical, etc.), interests, or technical competencies based on the IEEE technical societies.
  6. What is my obligation to the mentoring partnership? It is recommended that each mentoring partner commit to at least two hours per month for the success of their mentoring partnership. Communication between the mentoring partners can be by email, by phone, or in person, all at their own choosing. Use of the auto-created workspace in IEEE Collabratec can be extremely helpful for collaborating and sharing between the mentoring partners.
  7. 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. There must be a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each partner, and they must follow an action plan that defines goals and outlines expectations for the partnership.
  8. What should I expect to do in a mentoring partnership? Once you have entered the program, you should complete as much of your IEEE Collabratec profile as possible. If you are a mentor, activate your mentoring preferences and update your IEEE Collabratec Profile to manage your visibility as an IEEE mentor. Next, the application form requires information to assist in identifying and requesting the search for a match. The mentees then decide who their ideal mentor will be. Are they looking for someone with their same functional background, or are they interested in a mentor who can help bridge the gap into a new career field? As mentees consider these questions, they will complete their developmental goal-setting plan.
  9. Where do I go for more information? Please reference the Mentoring Program Guidelines for full program information. To get answers to your questions regarding the Mentoring Program, please go to IEEE Collabratec and submit them in the IEEE Mentoring Program and Career Forum workspace.