Students: Career Planning: Mentoring

Students exploring various fields of interest or refining their career goals can both benefit from the coaching of a mentor. Through sharing experiences from their career decision-making, courses, internships, professional development, and job search process, mentors can provide recommendations and "lessons learned" to students encountering similar situations. Other mentor benefits can include developing your professional network, gaining experience in your field of interest, and tips for building skills required to excel in the field. Oftentimes, mentoring relationships are developed through other experiential learning activities; however students seeking out a mentor may find many willing IUPUI alumni through the Alumni Mentor Database.

Alumni Mentor Connections Newsletter
The Alumni Mentor Connections Newsletter is distributed twice per semester and once during the summer to feature effective student-alumni mentoring connections and emphasize the benefits of mentoring relationships for students and alumni alike. Other helpful information includes articles about newly added alumni mentors, information from the Student Organization for Alumni Relations (SOAR); and valuable events for student and alumni participation.

To be added to the Alumni Mentor Connections e-distribution list, send your email address to vjacobse@iupui.edu.

Current issue of Alumni Mentor Connections:
November - December 2007 Mentor Newsletter

Recent issues of Alumni Mentor Connections:
September - October 2007 Mentor Newsletter
Summer 2007 Mentor Newsletter

We want to feature YOU in Alumni Mentor Connections!
Students: Tell us about your mentor and how he/she has helped you in your career exploration and development. Complete the following questionnaire to be featured in an upcoming issue of Alumni Mentor Connections: Mentoring Relationship Spotlight Questionnaire

Alumni Mentor Database

The Alumni Mentor Database is a tool for connecting hundreds of alumni from a variety of fields all over the country with current students for career exploration. Individuals within the Alumni Mentor Database complete a profile including their education and employment background. Mentors identify the method in which they want to be contacted (phone or email), a limit as to how often they wish to be contacted per month (regulated by the system), and the types of mentoring activities they are willing to offer, which include:

Career Advising: Answer students' questions relating to internship/job search, professional development, and lessons learned.
Informational Interview: Allow a student to interview mentor about career path, job, current issues in the field, etc.
Job Shadowing: Allow a student to observe mentor during a typical day's work.
Mock Interview: Help a student practice for an upcoming interview by asking him/her potential questions and offering constructive feedback for improvement.
Resume Review: Provide a student tips for improving his/her resume.
Employer Information: Answer student questions specifically relating to employment within mentor's organization.
Regional Information: Answer student questions specifically relating to the region of the state/country in which mentor lives or works.
Offer Internship: Willing to supervise a student intern within mentor's organization. An internship allows a student to spend a summer or semester performing project work within his/her field of interest.
Offer externship: Willing to supervise a student extern within mentor's organization. Lengthier than a job shadow but less intensive than an internship, externships allow the student to observe a professional's regular daily activities, experience a typical week on the job, and potentially participate in office projects.

Your mentor will be your cheerleader, but keep you realistic; remind you of your strengths, yet offer constructive criticism for continual improvement; provide counsel, but be the first to congratulate you on a job well done. Hundreds of IUPUI alumni mentors are eager to get to know you and assist you with your career development.

Find an Alumni Mentor

For more information about the Alumni Mentor Database, contact Valarie Jacobsen, Experiential Learning Coordinator, at (317) 278-8630 or vjacobse@iupui.edu.