Mentoring
The mentoring programme of the JMU Research Academy and the JMU Alumni Office connects researchers at the University of Würzburg with experienced national and international researchers and leaders from the business community and society. We select a suitable mentor from among the JMU alumni community for each potential mentee that can help with their specific issue. Fortunately, we have a very large number of people in our alumni database who would like to become mentors.
In the following section, we describe the two different types of mentoring we offer as well as what the mentoring process typically involves:
- Short mentoring (duration: usually 1 session)
- Mentoring for researchers (duration: usually approx. 1 year)
Approach: Short-Mentoring
Mentoring relationships are usually established to last a certain period of time (typically about a year). However, we have seen that the issues mentees want to discuss with a mentor (i.e. someone who is more experienced or further along their career path and can potentially offer support) are often so clearly defined that they can be solved in one meeting and do not require a longer mentoring relationship.
For these cases, we have introduced the short mentoring programme, in which we connect mentees with suitable and qualified discussion partners that will work with them in one (or only a few) sessions. In some cases, a short-term mentoring may result in a longer mentoring relationship, which we will of course continue to support.
A short mentoring gives you the opportunity to
- discuss your issues and questions with an experienced sparring partner in an appreciative atmosphere.
- benefit from the experience and networks of your mentor.
- gain insights through your mentor into a field of employment that interests you.
- get exposed to new perspectives.
- You start out by registering for the mentoring programme through our Alumni Portal. To do so, you will need to provide an up-to-date curriculum vitae. You will also be asked to briefly explain your motivation for participating in the mentoring programme.
- We will then contact you directly to clarify further questions in order to get a comprehensive idea of your goals and wishes. Based on the information you provide, we will search our alumni database for a suitable mentor.
- As soon as we have found a suitable match and obtained the consent of the alumnus or alumna, we will send you the contact details of your mentor.
- The next step will be for you to contact your mentor and make arrangements for an initial meeting. The main purpose of this meeting is to give you and your mentor a chance to get to know each other, to identify topics on which you want to work and to find out whether you would like to work with each other. The chemistry is not right? No problem. We will make a new attempt.
- Once we have successfully paired you with your mentor, we will hand over responsibility for the rest of the mentoring to you and your mentor. However, we will always be available to answer questions and provide assistance.
Approach: Mentoring for scientists (duration: approx. 1 year)
You have a specific issue and hope to get new input from someone who has taken a similar path or has a similar education. We will search our alumni database for a suitable mentor and will put you in touch with him or her. If the chemistry is right, the two of you will form a mentoring tandem and will work on your issue for about a year in a fashion that you and your mentor have agreed upon. The teams at Academic Staff Development and the Alumni Office will be available to provide assistance whenever needed.
Mentoring gives you the opportunity to
- discuss your issues and questions with an experienced sparring partner in an appreciative atmosphere.
- benefit from the experience and networks of your mentor.
- gain insights through your mentor into a field of employment that interests you.
- get exposed to new perspectives.
- You start out by registering for the mentoring programme through our Alumni Portal. To do so, you will need to provide an up-to-date curriculum vitae. You will also be asked to briefly explain your motivation for participating in the mentoring programme. Here, please also let us know which type of mentoring you want to receive (short mentoring or one-year mentoring tandem).
- We will then contact you directly to clarify further questions in order to get a comprehensive idea of your goals and wishes. Based on the information you provide, we will search our alumni database for a suitable mentor.
- As soon as we have found a suitable match and obtained the consent of the alumnus or alumna, we will send you the contact details of your mentor.
- The next step will be for you to contact your mentor and make arrangements for an initial meeting. The main purpose of this meeting is to give you and your mentor a chance to get to know each other, to identify topics on which you want to work and to find out whether you would like to work with each other. The chemistry is not right? No problem. We will make a new attempt.
When you have found a suitable mentor, you will enter into a mentoring agreement with him or her that sets out details of the topics on which you want to work, your objectives, your agreed modes of communication, any meetings you may have arranged already etc.
- Once we have successfully paired you with your mentor, we will hand over responsibility for the rest of the mentoring to you and your mentor. However, we will always be available to answer questions and provide assistance.
