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HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OUT OF YOUR MENTORING SESSIONS

NOTES FROM AN EX-MENTEE (ALSO A LIFELONG LEARNER)

“Mentorship is the bridge that turns potential into performance.”

As we near the end of an intensive degree and many of us are already in job-search mode, it’s crucial to seek and embrace all the support we can get. Being a lifelong early bird, I joined Psychology At Work’s 2023/24 ‘Emerging Occ Psychs’ mentoring cohort, hoping to gain the clarity and direction I needed to map out my career.

Now, as my partnership with my mentor concludes, I realise that this was a strategic and pivotal move that I made—one that provided me a clear path forward to define my career goals and next steps.

A mentor is an experienced and trusted advisor who provides guidance and support, often to a less experienced individual, commonly known as a mentee. This relationship isn’t a one-way lecture; rather, it’s a dynamic, two-way exchange of ideas, feedback, and learning. This interaction ultimately helps identify strengths, areas for improvement, and sets the foundation for creating and achieving goals. There are various mentoring models, such as the GROW model or the FUEL model, but the expectations and initial discussions between mentor and mentee usually set the tone for how the sessions are conducted. Each mentor-mentee relationship is unique, has a different process and can lead to different outcomes. I’d like to briefly share my own experience being a mentee:

As a member of the 2023/24 cohort, I was paired with an experienced Learning and Development (L&D) professional, which aligned with my career goals. However, at the time, I was open to speaking with just about anyone in any field, as my main goal was simply to get started. Our first session focussed on understanding each other’s expectations and past experiences. This was the most crucial stage in the process because it helped me develop a sense of trust and confidence in my mentor. I felt at ease and could openly, without fear of judgement, share my concerns and fears related to my career and professional development. Over the next eight sessions, we discussed my strengths as well as potential areas where I could stand out, based on my skills and interests. We then delved into the different avenues I could explore to shape my career strategy. Since L&D is a broad field and my skills ranged from customer service to research and consultancy, my mentor encouraged me to consider areas that slightly diverged from my profile but would still be a good fit, such as internal communications and sales. Through these sessions, I gained the clarity I needed. I knew where I stood, and what I needed to do next to move forward. As important as this strategic process was, what I valued most was the emotional support I received throughout the sessions. My mentor consistently provided me with mini-tasks to challenge my self-defeating assumptions and help me break through mental barriers. This approach not only made me more accountable for my career goals but also encouraged me to prioritise my mental health throughout the journey.

In sharing my experience, I want to highlight why these sessions had such a significant impact on me and ultimately proved to be a success. While the mentor, who is a subject matter expert or industry professional, is highly trained and skilled at guiding and coaching their mentee, the success of the collaboration also depends on the mentee’s preparedness to fully leverage these sessions. Here’s four steps for how I ensured that all eight sessions brought me closer to achieving my career goals.

Step 1: Know Your Mentor

As soon as I was informed of who my mentor would be, I immediately visited their LinkedIn profile to learn more about the person I would be engaging with. This is also a crucial tip for job searching: it’s important to fully understand the breadth and depth of experience and knowledge of the person you’ll be speaking with. By doing this, you can ask targeted questions during your initial discussion, based on what you’ve learned from their profile. This approach not only aids in building rapport but also opens up avenues for interesting conversations about your mentor’s own journey—elements of which might inspire your own.

Here are some questions you can ask; remember, the more in-depth your questions, the more you’ll gain from the conversation. This approach might even open up potential work opportunities for you.

  • “I noticed from your LinkedIn profile that you used to work in ____. That really caught my interest, as I never knew a role like that existed. Could you tell me more about it and how you got into it?”
  • “It’s truly inspiring how you advanced from position X to position Y within your company. What approaches worked and did not work out for you during your journey?”
  • “In your ‘About Me’ section on LinkedIn, I saw that you are part of a community for ____. I’m really interested in hearing about this group and whether they’re on the lookout for a volunteer/intern?”

Step 2: Be Open and Honest

While you’re not obliged to share anything you’re not comfortable with, it’s important to remember that this is a safe and collaborative space. Your mentor is there to help you, and to do that effectively, you need to be transparent. Share your current situation, challenges, aspirations, and any obstacles you’re facing. If you find yourself at a loss for words or struggling to articulate your thoughts, consider asking your mentor the following questions to guide the conversation and signal that you need a bit of assistance.

  • “There are some thoughts in my head and I’m not sure how best to phrase them.”
  • “If you could ask me some questions that would help me share my career ideas, that would make this much easier.”

Step 3: Do Your Homework

We have a lot on plates, agreed! There’s the constant juggling of personal lives with job-hunting. We have to think about our relationships, our commitments, our health and well-being as much as we do have to be on our laptops, scouring the internet for opportunities. It might be a good idea, therefore, to use the mentoring sessions as a sort of planner to prioritise your time. If your mentor gives you homework, in the form of small tasks and goals to achieve, those probably would help optimise your time, and that’s why it’s always important to follow through on them (e.g., my mentor asked me to reach out to 5 LinkedIn associations in the L&D space each week with a tailored message). I prioritised this task over all the other million aimless things I’d be doing, and as expected, was able to have insightful conversations with industry experts that helped me tap into new opportunities in the field—avenues I wouldn’t have explored before. To set yourself up for success, I also recommend coming up with some ideas of your own.

  • “What can I focus on for this month based on my current career goals?”
  • “How do you recommend breaking down this task into manageable steps?”
  • “What are some best practices for writing personalised messages to potential industry contacts?”

Step 4: Own Your Sessions

Your mentor is there to guide and support you, but the journey of job-hunting is yours alone, and its accountability is yours to shoulder. It’s easy to become passive and dependent on someone more experienced to pave your way forward—it’s social psychology! However, the most productive and ultimately successful mentor-mentee relationships are those where the mentee takes the reins and actively collaborates to achieve goals and maintain progress. Try these out and own your sessions: Schedule your sessions by being the one to reach out first (unless session dates are pre-set). Reach out to update your mentor and share your progress and difficulties so that they are prepared to discuss them in the next session. Adjust your sessions and goals to best fit your needs; after all, this is for you.

  • “Would you prefer I reach out a few days before our sessions to confirm the agenda?”
  • “Since our last session, I’ve made some progress on _________. Here’s some challenges I’m facing, though. Could we discuss this in our next meeting?”
  • “I’d appreciate your feedback on how you think I’m progressing, and any improvements you would suggest?”

Finally, and I’m sure we’re all good at this, but be sure to show your appreciation and gratitude for your mentor’s time and investment in your professional development.

Occasionally, to express your gratitiude, write them a thank you message:

“Thank you so much for your time and efforts. Your advice and encouragement have made a significant difference in my approach to job-hunting.”

“I appreciate all your help and advice on ___________. It’s been very useful.”

Signing up for mentoring is a wise step that shows your dedication to improving yourself, focussing on your goals, and striving to achieve them. The Emerging Occ Psychs initiative can further support this journey by offering events and mentoring to recent graduates of MSc programmes in occupational psychology and related disciplines. It opens applications for mentees each October and operates on a first come first served basis. You can learn more about the initiative HERE, and follow the PAW LinkedIn account HERE.

All the best on your career journey! Onwards & upwards 😀

Madhuri R's avatar

Madhuri is an Academic Support Advisor at the University of Hertfordshire, and a recent MSc graduate of Occupational Psychology. She’s always up for chat on all things related to workplace culture and change – so feel free to reach out!

Madhuri R

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FROM IDEA 💡 TO TOPIC 📚 TO QUESTION ❓

🚀 Documenting my MSc Dissertation Journey – Part 1

Halfway through my journey as an MSc Occupational Psychology student, I’ve realised that despite the pressure to figure out a career path, an MSc is actually about trying out different flavours of the profession and discovering where you feel most competent and connected with. Lately, I seem to have a growing conviction that I found my ‘sweet spot’—and the MSc thesis was the inspiration to this discovery.

Deciding on a topic for my dissertation was a long and iterative process. At first, I got swept away wanting to explore something ground-breaking; I went down rabbit holes of complex topics and ideas—believing this is where I can do the ‘next best thing’. However, it took a while for me to accept that the ultimate goal of a thesis is not to uncover ground-breaking discoveries (although of course that is entirely possible and amazing!), but showcase your research competence and ability to design and manage a research project effectively. Each step forward contributes to the broader scientific community’s understanding of a particular subject. The thesis is an opportunity to demonstrate your capacity to engage with scholarly literature, formulate research questions, employ appropriate methodologies, analyse data, and draw meaningful conclusions. It’s about the process as much as the outcome, showing that you possess the skills and knowledge to contribute meaningfully to your field.

📌BOUNDARIED CURIOSITY

The process begins with identifying a realistic, time-and-resource feasible, and ethical topic. At this stage, the most important skill is developing curiosity. It’s important to look around you, at things that happen right beside you and think whether you can answer or explore such phenomena through your study. Having a topic that interests you is important to keep yourself motivated, but it is also important to know what you can realistically do within the timeframe that you have. After weeks of discussions with my supervisor, who challenged me to think about the feasibility and relevance of my ideas (while still supporting my ambitious and curious nature), I finally decided to go about things bottom-up. I started reaching out to organisations, hoping that they would have a problem that I, as a researcher, can look into.

📌DEMONSTRATING VALUE

And here’s where I learned another skill—demonstrating ‘value’. It’s not enough to say that you are a student seeking an organisation for their study; it’s crucial to demonstrate the value you can offer the company through your project. This could manifest in various ways, but it’s essential to comprehend the organisation’s primary needs through discussion and dialogue and how your project can align with and address these needs. This approach guarantees a higher probability of success, but fair warning, it won’t always lead to a desirable outcome. It’s important to be prepared to ‘not get what you want’. It’s not a failure—it’s an opportunity to try again, with slight modifications. Although traditionally, universities expect MSc Occupational psychology students to conduct their project with an organisation, there are now several other avenues that can be used to gather participants, like social media. When I was struggling to find an organisation, I decided to switch my approach and develop a research question designed for a population of choice, which I can recruit through these alternate means.

📌CRITICAL READING & PURPOSEFUL NETWORKING

The interest in ‘predictors of resistance to change’ as a topic came about after a conversation with my previous boss. He mentioned how since the pandemic, organisations have made multiple attempts to help their employees integrate with planned and unplanned changes, but they seem to fail because there is an expectancy-value gap between what employers offer and employees need. When I mentioned this to my supervisor, he told me what to do next: “Read”. Focussed and extensive reading is often overlooked, in the hurry to get things in order, yet it’s the most crucial step in the process. Delving into the literature on change highlighted gaps in existing knowledge and revealed where my work could make a meaningful contribution. Ironically, with all the ‘changes’ happening in this profession itself, what better time than now to dive into a topic as relevant as change. The variables for my study emerged through discussions with supervisors, my own research, and conversations with individuals experiencing change first hand.

In conclusion, to develop the right topic for your thesis, it’s important to have four essential skills: boundaried curiosity, demonstrating value, critical reading and purposeful networking. My project is currently underway and still in the iterative stages, but the journey from selecting a topic to narrowing down a research question has also helped me understand my competencies and gauge my interest in a specific field or career path. The process of self-discovery during an MSc should never be underestimated, and every opportunity, such as an MSc thesis, should be maximised for its benefits. And hey! Don’t worry too much about getting things ‘right’—research, by nature isn’t about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it’s about discovery, which is what you are and will be doing.

Madhuri R's avatar

Madhuri is an emerging Occupational Psychologist, doing a Masters degree at the University of Hertfordshire, and a blog writer for PsychologyatWork.blog. She combines her skill for writing with her passion for workplace psychology to create engaging posts and thought pieces. With a BSc in Psychology and previous work experience in consultation, counselling and content development, she is keen on making a positive, creative and compassionate impact on her career, industry and optimistically, the world.

Madhuri R

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On the ‘will’ to endure and persist.

By Madhuri Rajkumar

Imagine being in Sisyphus’s shoes, condemned to roll a boulder up a hill forever. Onlookers sympathize with the seemingly ‘meaningless’ and ‘futile’ labor; rolling the heavy rock is also physically demanding and painfully tedious, offering no tangible or immediate respite. The question looms: How long would you prevail before weariness takes over, and surrender becomes an inevitable reality?

There’s a moral behind this dramatic start to the blog. The story of Sisyphus has a profound lesson: ‘we define our activities’. My question, as a psychologist, would then be: Does the meaning we assign to tasks impact the time and effort we invest, even when challenges arise?

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-persistence-kevin-andrews/

In the literature of psychology, persistence remains an elusive and a sort of ‘spill-over’ concept, one that you see everywhere but is paid very little attention to. 

In the past, it was shadowed by another word, short and dramatic, but powerful in meaning: will. We possess the freedom to decide our pursuits and choose our paths. Within us lies the self-determining capacity to move towards what we need. In other words, we are able to give motive to our actions. All this, summarised as ‘free will’. Will separates us from our neighbours in the animal kingdom, enforcing the idea that we are capable of making conscious choices. While the task of rolling the boulder up the hill was imposed upon Sisyphus by the gods as a punishment, his response to this predicament becomes an exercise of his will and agency.

Something is amiss, still—

Motive won’t suffice. One must have the capacity to continue the action for as long as they can, or till the goal is reached. On a physical level, we call this endurance—from a mental perspective, perhaps persistence?

Both suggest a continuous release of energy; but where does this energy come from—does it come from the ‘meaning’ we ascribe to what we perform or are some people just born with more ‘energy’ than others?

Without motive, there is no movement.

Sisyphus’s plight is perpetual; as he approaches the summit, the boulder descends, compelling him to repeat the process. His example captures the essence of the human condition—meaning is absent unless we give our actions significance. We hold the power to assign meaning—from achieving top grades to completing a degree, it’s within our control. Without meaning, the academic journey mirrors Sisyphus’s struggle. This analogy extends to workplaces as well: how many faces similar challenges, and how many endure and persist despite them? We persist in our actions, even in challenging times, by recalling the meaning we attach to them and reminding ourselves of our ability to invest energy in these actions.

Source: https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search/images?k=persistence

As students, there may be many instances of disillusionment, disagreement and disappointment, especially when faced with mammoth tasks like building projects and securing jobs. When the weariness and the feeling of defeat starts to sets in, what can you do to persist?

  • Recall your motives: What were the motivations behind choosing to become an Occupational Psychologist? What end result are you expecting? Is it significant enough to keep you moving? If not, what do you need to make it significant enough so that you continue?
  • Remind yourself of your abilities: You are born with the endurance to get through difficulties; you just need to remind yourself of it in order to activate it. There are strengths within you that will sustain you in your journey. This isn’t a matter of enquiry; but a truth.
  • Remember to rest: Persistence might be the recipe to success; when applied thoughtfully. When your endurance is low and but you persist, you enter into a zone of high stress. This is when you need to dial back and allow yourself to relax. It’s unwise to push yourself beyond what you can endure.

The persistence conversation is never-ending, just like the examples we’ve been using. Just when you think you know what it means, another word gets thrown into the mix. Resilience, conscientiousness, commitment, grit—the wordplay can go on. Underlying all this, however, seems to be the presence of a meaning/purpose that influences what we do next. So, in order to step forward, take a moment to look back as well 😊

This is a topic that would be explored further in later blogs. As an exercise, can you think of something you’ve persisted in (something you continued despite difficulty/opposition) and then reflect on why you did? Feel free to share them with us.

Madhuri R's avatar

Madhuri Rajkumar is an emerging Occupational Psychologist, doing a Masters degree at the University of Hertfordshire, and a blog writer for PsychologyatWork.blog. She combines her skill for writing with her passion for learning, training and development to create engaging posts and thought pieces. With a BSc in Psychology and previous work experience in consultation, counselling and content development, she is keen on making a positive, creative and compassionate impact on her career, industry and optimistically, the world.

Madhuri R