Our Alumni Mentoring networking event on 3 December saw this year's batch of mentees meet their carefully chosen mentors for the first time.
Our Mentoring team have been painstakingly pairing Imperial alumni from across the globe with current students wanting to gain invaluable commercial awareness and insight from the brightest and best. Students were matched by designated career area interest, by course study and by the nature of the support they felt they needed. From Aberdeen to America, Mauritius to Malaysia, Imperial alumni have outstanding global reach – as mentors, they can extend this reach to today’s students too.
Following the success of 2014’s pilot scheme, 102 mentees were successfully matched to mentors from industries including Engineering, Law, Medicine and Finance. Over the course of the next year, they’ll provide their mentees with guidance on career direction, role awareness and networking opportunities from a unique standpoint. After all, who better to ask what to do and how to do it than someone that already has?
Our Internship and Placement Advisers arranged an event on the evening of 3 December to introduce mentees and mentors; after a quick hello from Barnaby, Jessica, Mark and Rachel (and more crisps and muffins than you can shake a stick at), the guests set about networking and building a professional connection we hope will be beneficial and insightful for many years to come.
“We’re very pleased to have built on the foundations of the mentoring scheme’s inaugural year and kicked off the 2015/16 Alumni Mentoring Scheme with a vivacious networking event. We have some fantastic alumni mentors involved once again, ready to impart insights into their workplace, their career, and their journey to it, from the same shoes their student mentees are now in.”
– Barnaby Mollett
Placement & Internship Adviser
So what can you gain from being mentored? Fundamentally it’s about getting some first-hand experience on what it’s like to work in a particular industry, how to get started, and how to develop your skills ready for life in the world of work. If you’re not sure if a job is for you, or not sure on the best way to get there, your mentor – from anywhere in the world, and from some of the biggest companies – can help. In exchange, mentors stay connected with Imperial, improve their own coaching abilities and gain personal reward from helping students too.
Interested?
Next year’s scheme opens in the autumn term 2016, but in the meantime, you can Ask An Alumnus – this service provides all year round access to the invaluable insights of Imperial alumni. Just search JobsLive for registered alumni and submit your questions via the form on the website; it couldn’t be easier to make use of your own personal network.
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Olivia Sleet
Careers Service
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Email: press.office@imperial.ac.uk
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