Professionals
Take the opportunity to help shape the future of students who have an appetite for learning and achievement. We have all had influencers in our lives that have made a positive difference. Being a Mentor in Connect 3 is a way of making an impact on students as future leaders in their respective fields.
Benefits
Engage in an enriching experience that provides the mentee and mentor an opportunity for self-reflection which leads to better, more informed professional and personal decision making.
Shape the future of aspiring students who want to learn from successful leaders before they get started in the business world.
The Process
The desired interactions are structured around a series of 3 meetings over a 90-day time frame and call on the student to plan each meeting as well as provide a recap of each meeting with respect to their desired outcome, questions, and next steps.
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Getting Into the Meetings
MEETING 1: In the introductory meeting, the student should be able to share their background, areas of interest, and commonalities with the mentor to successfully develop an ongoing rapport with the mentor. The student should be able to successfully engage the mentor on roles of interest and crisply articulate key questions they have regarding the role. A best practice is to explain key aspects of roles (e.g. "day in the life of the role") and help the student further determine if that type of role would be a good fit for them and why.
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MEETING 2: Success for the second meeting can be demonstrated by a student’s deeper comfort level and discussion of their overall career interests and reasons why that interest exists, and a basic understanding of the entry-level roles and which is of interest to them and why (this can include them demonstrating and how they interact with each other, including the ability to begin explaining their interest and/or fit with those roles). As a mentor in a given industry, you have valuable insights and knowledge to share as to current industry trends and best practices, role insights, company cultures and insights, extracurricular activities a student should be focused on, coaching and feedback with specificity for the student to continue growing.
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MEETING 3: Before the 3rd meeting, the student should have demonstrated to you proficiency, confidence, and a developed the ability to articulate their interests smoothly, reasons for interest in the role, their strengths, and weakness related to the role and even questions they should be knowledgeable of and comfortable asking a prospective employer to help ensure the company and role are mutually beneficial for both student and employer. By the end of the 3rd meeting, the intention is the mentor knows the student well enough to be willing and able to further connect (through a warm introduction) the student with 2 to 3 professionals within their own network to allow the opportunity for continued progression and strengthening of the student’s professional conversations.
Best Practices for Mentors
Discussions with the students are not intended to be specific job search discussions such as a summer internship or post-graduate opportunity. it's truly more self developmental, self-awareness, insights, and knowledge of the industry and companies (even yours), industry trends that the student should be aware of and progress towards through the undergraduate curriculum.
Mentors can help guide a student by allowing the student the opportunity to fail/miss their intended objective of each meeting. Each meeting is a learning opportunity for them and you can help coach them on what they did right and wrong, what they did not do enough of, and areas where they should do more. As a mentor, you are not only sharing your expertise and experience in your specific field, but introducing skillsets and shaping the lives of the future young professionals you work with.
Mr. Joe Astrauckas
"I wish that I had someone to help me like this when I was in school, and I hope to help students not make the same mistakes that I did. There are choices that they can make now and in the short term that will impact the rest of their lives. I truly enjoy working with young people to open their eyes to different facets of business and help them make the best decision for them as they look towards their next step."