Career Guidance & Mentor

Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the goal of professional and personal development. The "mentor" is usually an experienced individual who shares knowledge, experience, and advice with a less experienced person, or "mentee."

Mentors become trusted advisers and role models – people who have "been there" and "done that." They support and encourage their mentees by offering suggestions and knowledge, both general and specific. The goal is to help mentees improve their skills and,  advance their careers.

Mentoring Techniques

Mentoring requires an exercise of great wisdom, caution, and expertise on the part of the mentor. There are many techniques that are used these days, some of which have been briefly explained below:

1. Mentors are assigned the responsibility of preparing their mentees for change. The focus is to prepare the individual mentally before he/she is asked for change so that the change is not taken as negative and instead a developmental process. This mentoring technique is called sowing.
2. The other entering technique is called accompanying, where the mentor is involved in the learning process of the mentee side by side explicitly, guiding all the time.
3. Doing is yet another mentoring technique in which the mentor uses his own example to make something understandable. It is also called leading.
4. Harvesting is one technique that is essentially aimed at evaluating past learning and extracting conclusions from the same.
5. Catalyzing is one technique wherein the process of learning or knowledge transfer is speeded. This is done only when a significant amount of change is achieved.

For mentoring it is important to understand the learning requirements and the style of the mentee. An inappropriate mentoring methodology can act in reverse. As mentioned at the beginning of the write-up, you require a great deal of expertise for the mentoring process. Handle with care is the mantra!

Objectives of Career Development Systems

• Better Communication in Organization: The main objective of designing a career development system is to foster better communication within the organization as a whole. It promotes communication at all levels of organizations for example managers and employees and managers and top management. Proper communication is the lifeblood of any organization and helps in solving several big issues.
• Better Use of Employee Skills: A career development system helps organizations make better use of employee skills. Since managers know their skills and competencies and therefore, can put them in a job where they will be able to produce maximum output.
• Setting Realistic Goals: Setting realistic goals and expectations is another main objective of a career development system. It helps both employees and the organization to understand what is feasible for them and how they can achieve their goals.
• Creating a Pool of Talented Employees: Creating a pool of talented employees is the main objective of organizations. After all, they need to meet their staffing needs in the present and future and a career development system helps them fulfill their requirements.
• Enhancing Career Satisfaction: Organizations especially design career development systems for enhancing the career satisfaction of their employees. Since they have to retain their valuable assets and prepare them for top-notch positions in the future, they need to understand their career requirements and expectations from their organization.
• Feedback: Giving feedback on every step is also required within an organization to measure the success rate of a specific policy implemented and initiatives taken by the organization. In addition to this, it also helps managers to give feedback on employees performance so that they can understand what is expected of them.

A career development system can be very effective in creating a supportive culture in the organization and help employees grow and utilize their skills to achieve their desires and aspirations related to their careers. Both organization and employees can meet their goals simultaneously.

Student Academic Counseling, Career Advising, And Mentoring

Effective academic counseling, career advising, and mentoring foster student success and are an integral part of the institutional environment. Academic counseling provides students with clear pathways for successful and timely completion of their academic goals, through either degree or certificate programs at two-year colleges or transfers to four-year colleges or universities. Career advising provides information about a wide variety of employment opportunities available in chemistry-based careers. Mentoring leads to the successful completion of educational and career goals.

Advisers, counselors, and faculty members should help students develop educational goals and guide their professional development via networking opportunities, confidence building, and career planning. A strong collaboration among chemistry faculty, counselors, and advisers at the institution and their contacts at local high schools, receiving institutions, and employers should be fostered and sustained in order to increase students successful matriculation, transfer, job placement, and achievement of career goals.

Faculty Mentors

Given their regular interaction with students, content knowledge, professional background, and community contacts, faculty members can be particularly effective mentors, especially if they maintain communication with employers and four-year institutions. Faculty members should encourage students to consider the career options available within chemistry and support efforts to engage students from underrepresented minorities.

Faculty should be intentional about creating opportunities for mentoring relationships to occur. While mentorship can take many forms, faculty members engaging students in research are well-situated to provide exceptional mentoring opportunities, as well as to prepare students for successful academic transfers and transitions into the workplace; such research can be an enriching experience for faculty members as well. Faculty members can also guide students toward industrial or government mentors and encourage participation in internships or cooperative education experiences.

Two-year college administration should foster an environment that supports faculty in their mentorship efforts. Faculty members serving in formal mentoring programs should be compensated or given reassigned time. The committee consists of the following members:-