What It Means to Be A Mentor
Becoming an alma mentor means, first and foremost, sharing your time and experience with others and helping them thrive in a situation that you have already mastered.
At your alma mater, we appreciate your willingness to do so and do not take your commitment for granted. Therefore, the number-one goal of the alma Mentoring Team is to support you, making sure that your time resources are used in the best possible way and that you can focus on the essentials.
Your role as a mentor
As a mentor you are your mentee's go-to person for all questions regarding career topics. You will help your mentees reflect on their plans against the backdrop of your own experience and support them in planning their next steps.
Your role as a mentor is, above all, to support your mentee and to open up space for reflection in joint discussions. The mentorship is intended to provide mentees with an opportunity to take their time and order their thoughts.
Even if most mentees begin the mentoring process hoping to primarily gain new information, we know from many years of experience that a mentorship is most successful for mentees if they find in you someone who is personally available for them.
This also means that you do not have to worry about perhaps not having sufficient knowledge or too little experience to act as a mentor. Mentees should be encouraged to research information on their own and remain active throughout the entire mentoring process.
Recommendations for Your Mentorship
Keep in mind the following principles in order to establish a successful mentoring relationship:
- You are volunteering your experience, not a blueprint.
Remain open to the mentees' wishes and ideas . Make it clear that your opinion on how to best manage a situation is just one possible way; the decision is up to the mentees. - Mentoring is a work relationship.
When mentees go through a tough time, e.g. before graduation or in other stressful situations, they might confide in you; after all, they put their trust in you. Stay aware of your role within the framework of mentorship and, if unrelated topics threaten to take over, steer the conversation back to relevant issues. - You are not Google.
You will be able to answer many of your mentees' questions, but certainly not all of them. For you, knowing the limits of what you can do and watching your resources is just as important as it is for mentees to become self-sufficient.
Other services regarding career planning and professional development at the University of Vienna
In addition to the alma Mentoring Programme, the University of Vienna provides extensive support for students and graduates in their transition from university to work life as well as in setting up a business of their own. alma mentees are advised to make use of these services, too. As a mentor, you therefore do not have to provide an overview of career planning services.
Uniport, the
career planning service at the University of Vienna, offers a wide range of workshops, professional counselling and coaching services for students and graduates at the start of their careers and in career transition phases. By participating in workshops and career consultations, students and graduates can sharpen their personal career profiles, acquiring know-how on career orientation, job search and self-presentation. Feedback on their application documents (CV and cover letter) as well as their performance in mock interviews counts among the core elements of the consultation services offered, accompanying the mentoring process.
With its u:start programme, the University of Vienna also offers support in becoming self-employed and starting a business. Available services range from support in developing one's own business plan to in-depth seminars on marketing, accounting, financial planning, sales training and customer acquisition; basically everything young entrepreneurs will need to set up a viable business.
The u:start programme takes place in annual rounds. For information on the next round and the application deadline, please contact the u:start team by e-mail to ustart@univie.ac.at.
Time Investment
Mentoring someone means supporting them during a specific process and, as such, should last between no less than six and no more than twelve months. We recommend that you meet once a month and between five to seven times, with each meeting lasting about one and a half hours, i.e. you should invest about eight to ten hours in a mentorship. As a general rule, each mentoring team agrees on a schedule together, with mentees defining their needs and you outlining your resources.
Apart from the time spent on meeting with your mentee, you will also need some time to complete your profile, familiarise yourself with the website and get ready for your role as a mentor. You can do this conveniently online by using the Mentors' guide in the Mentoring Wiki on the platform. Or you attend one of our regular information events for mentors, which we also offer in the form of webinars upon request. Event dates will be automatically saved in your alma calendar. We ask you to please request webinars by e-mail to alma@univie.ac.at.
In any case, extensive preparation for your role as a mentor will not be necessary, as you already bring two essential qualities with you: your experience and your willingness to help others.
For those interested, there is more to explore within the alma Mentoring Programme:
feel free to join and/or initiate mentor groups and share your experience and network with other alma users via the website or at regulars' meetings. Every year in autumn you will be cordially invited to return to the University of Vienna and take part in the alma Convention. For one and a half days we will be offering you an extensive programme of further education and opportunities for exchange. We would be happy to use this as an occasion to thank you personally for your commitment.
Your Benefits
When a mentoring process is successfully finished, not only mentees will benefit, but also their mentors: mentorship will help you improve your consulting skills, and, by sharing your experience and views with your mentee(s), you will come up with new ideas, expand your horizons and perhaps look at your own career path from a different perspective. At our events and group meetings you will get to know other mentors and have plenty of networking opportunities.
Whatever suits you, you will certainly find inspiration and get new ideas.
Our Support
At the core of our program is the alma Mentoring Platform. This platform was developed based on several years of experience with mentoring programmes and research on online community projects. Our number-one goal in this process has always been to ensure the platform's usability.
This alma Mentoring Platform is a unique project not only in Austria but the entire European Higher Education Area. We are just at the beginning and always eager to improve. Should you have any suggestions or find anything on the website not working as you would like it to, we would be pleased to receive your feedback.
The alma Mentoring Team
The alma Mentoring Programme is led by a team of six members from the Alumni Association of the University of Vienna. You can always contact us: we are always happy to help out with our expertise and appreciate your commitment as a mentor for your alma mater! You can reach us Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 0043-1-4277-28001 or by e-mail to alma@univie.ac.at.