Mentoring Guidelines for Mentees

The formal DCU Mentoring Programme has been running since 2012 and is open to all staff at all levels. The number of staff participating in the scheme continues to grow year on year. The benefits of the scheme for you, as a mentee, include the following:

Self Development: build your capability, self confidence, resourcefulness and influencing skills

Focus: gain advice on career progression, development options and research opportunities

Connectedness: raise your profile, build a broader network and gain organisational and sectoral knowledge

Before you embark on your journey as a mentee, the following guidelines may be helpful:

• The scheme is mentee-led - it is your responsibility to make and maintain contact with your mentor and to determine the agenda for each meeting 
• The suggested meeting schedule is one hour per month for a 12 month period. However, it is up to you and your mentor to decide how best this time is allocated (i.e. monthly, bi-monthly etc)
• Your mentor may ask you for feedback at the end of each session. Be as honest as possible as this can help to ensure that your expectations are being met
• Anything discussed between you and your mentor is completely confidential unless you both agree otherwise in relation to specific parts of the discussion
• For advice on personal issues that may be impacting on your professional life but are not appropriate for discussion with your mentor you can contact the DCU Employee Assistance Programme

Your role as a mentee includes:

• Retain responsibility for your own learning, development and career planning
• Ensure mentoring meetings are happening on a regular basis
• Have clear objectives for the mentoring relationship and an agenda for each meeting
• Be curious and open to new perspectives

Meet informally - over coffee? 

Where will we meet for future meetings?

What environment will facilitate a good quality conversation?

What are my overall goals for this mentoring relationship? - discuss with your mentor and share your expression of interest forms if you have not already done so 

How will we know if these goals are being achieved? 

What might success look like?

How often and for how long will we meet? 

Should we diary all meetings now or diary one meeting ahead each time? 

What is the best way to contact each other? (email, phone etc)

How will we deal with it if either of us feels that the mentoring relationship is not working? 

What are the boundaries of mentoring topics for us?

• Review any actions/progress from last session 
• Mentee communicates the agenda and/or what they would like to get from this session 
• Actions are agreed during the session if appropriate 
• Mentee provides feedback to the mentor at the end of the session

HR Learning & Development will contact you at the midpoint and after 12 months to seek your feedback on the scheme. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact one of the team at learning.development@dcu.ie