Extended Career Mentoring Networks
Extended Career Mentoring Networks
What is an Extended Career Mentoring Network?
A network of professionals with non-academic positions that can act as career mentors for undergraduate and graduate students that is built by an academic advisor. The goal of the network is to improve career mentoring for students by connecting them directly with professionals who have knowledge and expertise beyond what academic advisors can provide.
I have recently developed my own Extended Career Mentoring Network and am excited to share this idea with others. Read on if you are interested in learning more about Career Mentoring Networks, including the benefits of such Networks and how to get started building you own!
Why have an Extended Career Mentoring Network?
Only about 30-40% of ecology PhD holders enter tenure-track professor positions (Fox, 2020) and models suggest that the percent of PhDs in all fields entering tenure-track academic positions may be much lower (Larson et al. 2013). However, the assumption that academia is the ‘default’ career for most ecology (and other STEM) graduate students is widespread. This assumption is harmful as it precludes essential career mentoring for undergraduate and graduate students in ecology and other STEM fields. Furthermore, the notion that academic positions are the only successful career outcome, while other careers are considered ‘alternative’ (despite being the majority), creates a toxic environment where students hesitate to discuss non-academic career ambitions with advisors or peers (Levine, 2019). Thus, there is a need to improve both the process and culture of career mentoring for undergraduate and graduate STEM students.
What are the goals of an Extended Career Mentoring Network?
The main goals of an Extended Career Mentoring Network are:
To increase the quality of career mentoring for undergraduate and graduate students by connecting them with mentors in their career of choice.
To challenge the current culture of job training in academia that solely focuses on tenure-track professor positions as ideal jobs after graduation. Only about half of PhDs have ‘tenure-track professor’ as their first career choice.
To increase diversity within graduate programs by creating a more welcoming environment for students who are interested in positions outside a university setting. There are myriad financial (e.g., low pay, student loan interest accruement) and structural (e.g., needing to move to areas without family/friend support systems) barriers to professorial positions that make academia unattractive or simply untenable for many people. An increased promise of post-gradation stability can help increase the socio-economic and racial diversity of STEM fields.
To encourage other labs/universities to create extended mentoring networks of their own.
How do I form an Extended Career Mentoring Network?
Identify potential mentors.
It is likely that you already know non-academic professionals from your current or previous universities or from conferences that you attended that would make excellent mentors! However, this network can be expanded by asking colleagues or mentors already in your network about other potential mentors. This is especially important if you have students interested in particular careers that you have no connection with. This is an excellent opportunity to expand your professional network and most professionals are happy to be contacted about such an opportunity!
Ask mentors to join your network.
Connect with mentors via email or phone and explain to them what you are trying to achieve and how they can participate. Ask them if they would be interested in participating and give them ample time to consider the question. Also, be understanding if the answer is ‘no’ or ‘not right now’. Assure them that there is a spot in your network if they have time to join it in the future.
Collect basic information from mentors for potential mentees.
After mentors agree to be a part of your network, have them provide some details about their education, position, and expertise for potential mentees. Having this information accessible to your students can help them more easily identify potential careers and mentors. Ask mentors before disseminating this information. For example, are they okay with you sharing it with your students? With the whole department? On a more public database? The answer to this question will vary from mentor to mentor, so be sure to ask. Also clarify if they are okay with students contacting them directly or if they would prefer you to connect them with students.
Provide mentors and mentees with training.
Provide mentors with information and training on how they can be effective while working with mentees. Likewise, provide mentees with information on how to get the most out of a mentoring experience. No need to reinvent the wheel here! There are many good resources that can provide mentors and mentees with the training and tools they will need.
Help connect mentors and mentees.
Once students identify potential mentors they would like to work with, introduce them to mentors to help get the conversation started. This could be a simple email or a short video call. After this initial introduction, both the mentor and mentee should fill out a ‘mentoring contract’ that specifies their goals and expectations (please see below for a simple example). Mentors may have limited time and student’s mentoring needs will vary, depending on where they are in their training process. Thus, the first step in any mentor-mentee relationship should be to honestly evaluate how much time and effort they can put into this process (e.g., by specifying the number of meetings per time frame, specific goals for the mentoring process, and the length of time the mentoring relationship will last). Honest and effective communication of responsibilities and goals should be the basis of all mentoring relationships.
Follow up with mentors and mentees.
After a mentoring relationship is established, make sure to follow up with both mentors and mentees. Ask if there are additional resources that they need or if they have concerns or questions. If the mentee in question is a student in your lab, this is likely to take the form of a personal conversation. However, if you are running a larger program, this follow-up may be through an email or poll.
Talk to others about your network!
Encourage other academic advisors to create extended mentoring networks and tell them about your experiences. After getting permission from your mentors, share their information with students from other labs. This may take the form of a departmental-wide list that is shared with professors or students directly. You can also discuss this topic in group lab meetings or departmental seminars. These networks also make it easier to organize things like career panels and career Q&A sessions for graduate students. Always remember, the goal is to change both the process of career mentoring for graduate students, as well as the culture around that mentoring!
Mentee
Name: Date:
Goals for mentoring relationship (e.g., learning more about a specific career, improving Individual Development Plan, applying for a position)?
Ideal number of meetings per month/semester?
Ideal length of time mentoring relationship will last?
Mentor
Name: Date:
Goals for mentoring relationship (e.g., discussing career with mentee, helping mentee find/apply for jobs)?
Ideal number of meetings per month/semester?
Ideal length of time mentoring relationship will last?
Mentee/Mentor
Agreed upon goals:
Agreed upon number of meeting and length of mentoring relationship: