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For mentors
Mentoring can be a rewarding experience for both mentors and mentees
As a mentor, you can give back to the research community and support the next generation of researchers.
Key takeaways
- Being a mentor comes with many benefits, including demonstrating your track record of research leadership.
- Take proactive steps to becoming a mentor. Look out for mentoring program call outs, speak to colleagues about who needs support, and increase your own visibility so potential mentees can reach out.
- Be approachable.
- Know what skills and value you can offer as a mentor.
Read time: 5 min
Why mentor?
Many researchers say that having had great mentoring experiences in their own academic careers, they do it themselves to pay it forward or "leave the ladder down". Others see their role as supporting the continuation of future generations of excellent researchers. Some benefits include:
Ability to demonstrate your leadership
Mentoring junior researchers, developing colleagues, and sharing your expertise are integral to research leadership.
Some fellowship applications, like those from the NHMRC, specifically ask you to describe your mentoring experience. It can also be considered in promotion. There are also internal and external prizes that recognise excellent mentoring of early-career researchers.
Saying yes to being a mentor for formal programs can be a good way to build your CV and track record. But don’t become a mentor just for that reason – what is most important is that you genuinely want to foster others!
Increase your skills
As a mentor, you can practice and advance your skills in listening and asking questions, or learn something new from your mentee if you have different skillsets. It also enables you to understand different perspectives that may benefit you and your research.
Expand your network
Having a mentee, especially one in a different field to you, can expand your own network by putting you in contact with other researchers. This can open the door to new collaborations and research opportunities.
Advice from University of Sydney researchers
How to become a mentor
Becoming a mentor often happens organically through your networks or connections. Other times, you might be approached by someone who wants a quick chat over coffee or asks you to participate in a formal mentoring program. But there are other proactive ways to become a mentor.
Keep an eye out for requests or programs
Look out for requests in Staff News, local newsletters from your faculty/school/multidisciplinary initiative (MDI) or professional associations. There can be call outs asking for mentors to volunteer their time for a specific program.
The Researcher Development Unit in the Research Portfolio are always on the lookout for skilled and enthusiastic mentors. If you're a University of Sydney academic Level C or above and you'd like to put yourself forward as a mentor for one of our programs, don't hesitate to get in touch.
Speak to colleagues or your network
Speak to your own colleagues, your supervisor, mentor, Head of School or Dean and let them know you’re interested in becoming a mentor. They might know of others who are looking to be mentored and can put you in touch. Even if there are no current opportunities, you will be on their radar should they come about.
Support HDR students
If you’re an ECR, see if there are any HDR students in your local area who would benefit from your guidance. Ask your peers or HDR supervisors in your school, faculty, or MDI.
Increase your visibility
Many researchers have told us that some of the best mentoring they’ve had came about by approaching people they had seen at conferences, that they follow online via social media, or whose work they’ve heard of by word of mouth. By becoming more active on social media or saying yes to giving talks within and beyond the University, including those focused on ECR skill or career development, you'll gain exposure and build your profile. Researchers might reach out to you for advice because they want to emulate your success.
Things to consider before mentoring
Know what you can offer
Knowing what expertise you can bring to a potential mentee is vital. You can ask what they’re looking for and if you don’t think you’re suitable, you can suggest they approach someone else (or, even better, you can give them some names of people to contact!).
The time factor
Consider whether you have the time to dedicate yourself fully to mentoring at this stage. Do you have several grant applications coming up with a heavy teaching load and are you already stretched? If so, maybe waiting is a better option for both you and a potential mentee.
If you do have some time to mentor, you will need to be clear with mentees about the time you can offer them, the frequency of the meetings, and potentially the duration. Clarity on this helps to foster respectful and productive relationships.
Mentoring should be mentee driven
As a mentor, it is not your responsibility to drive the mentoring sessions or the topic of conversation. While you can and should benefit from the relationship, it is a partnership based on developing the skills and supporting your mentee. You should regularly check in with your mentee to ensure they are also getting what they need from the relationship. This might open the door to a new topic of conversation or provide some useful feedback for you.
You only get out what you put in
As the adage goes, you only get out what you put in. That is also the case for mentoring. As you increase in academic seniority, you will be expected to mentor more researchers, but it is only fruitful if both parties are engaged and putting in effort to make it work. The more you value being a mentor, the more you will get out of it, and the more impact you will have.