What is mentoring?
Learn more about receiving mentoring with the CIPD Trust
Unlock your potential through mentoring
We know that doing something you’ve never done before can be daunting. We also know that mentoring can lead to someone achieving a goal that can feel out of reach, such as getting a job or moving up in their career. Here we explain what mentoring is, how it works and how you can get the best out of mentoring if you decide to give it go.
My mentor helped me tighten my CV and reminded me to believe in myself again. Even though I’ve taken a stopgap role, I now feel more confident about working towards the job I really want.”
Chi, Bridging the Gap mentee
“My mentor has been excellent — always available, willing to challenge me in the right ways, and really helpful in exploring new opportunities. It’s been a very positive experience.”
Jim, Bridging the Gap mentee
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is where a more experienced person (a mentor) advises and guides a less experienced person (a mentee – you). Mentoring conversations are often focused on a goal that you have, for example, finding a job. You and your mentor will work on this goal together. You’ll discuss different options and your mentor will encourage you to plan how you’ll reach your goal and what steps you need to take to get there. Sometimes your mentor will give you advice and feedback based on their experience. They’ll be there to motivate you each step of the way.
Why consider mentoring?
Searching for work or a new job can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re facing challenges to getting into employment. Having a mentor by your side gives you support, encouragement and practical advice from someone who understands the world of work. It’s a chance to build confidence, develop your skills and be clearer on where you want to go next. Many mentees describe mentoring as a life-changing experience they carry with them throughout their careers.
What is mentoring with the CIPD Trust?
Our mentoring programmes connect you with an experienced HR professional who’ll share their knowledge, insights and encouragement to help you grow and reach your goals. A mentor isn’t there to solve problems for you – they’re a sounding board who helps you think differently about your challenges and opportunities and works with you on how to move forwards.
Your mentor can:
- Help you communicate your skills and experience more effectively.
- Explain what employers look for when hiring.
- Support you to set and achieve career goals.
- Share advice on building a professional network.
- Practise job interviews with you.
- Answer questions about working in the UK, from employee rights to flexible work.
- Guide you through career changes.
- Provide a safe, supportive space to talk openly about your challenges.
CIPD Trust mentors are all people who work in Human Resources (HR) which is the department that helps an organisation find, support and manage its employees. Our mentors volunteer their time to support people who are having difficulty finding a job. They work in different industries and often have had experience in hiring for all sorts of roles. They can help you work out what skills you have and how you might talk to an employer about them. They also know the best ways to develop people at work and can help you to think about the next steps in your career.
When you sign up to our mentoring platform you’ll create a profile explaining what support you’re looking for in your job search. We’ll use this profile to match you to someone that we think will be a great fit for you. We look at lots of different things when we match you including what kind of job you are looking for, where you are in the country and what you want help with. This means that we won’t always match you with someone who works in the industry that you want to work in but we will always match you with someone who can help.
You’ll create a profile on our online platform by answering some questions and we’ll use that to match you to a mentor who can support you.
- You’ll be matched with a HR professional who will support your job search for up to six months.
- You and your mentor will arrange a first meeting online.
- At that meeting you’ll get to know your mentor and talk about how they can help you.
- You’ll plan how often to meet and get some more online meetings booked in.
- You and your mentor will discuss your goals and your mentor will help you to work out the steps you need to take to achieve them.
- At each meeting you’ll discuss your progress and your mentor will help you plan what you want to achieve between meetings.
- Between each meeting you’ll work on different aspects of your job search. That could be making changes that your mentor has suggested to your CV, setting up a LinkedIn profile or exploring jobs you hadn’t thought of before.
- As you become more confident in your job search, the mentoring will draw to a close.
- Your mentor will hold a final session with you to give feedback to each other and celebrate your success together.
Your role as a mentee is to take the lead. Think about your short and long-term goals, prepare for conversations and be open about the challenges you’re facing. This is your time to explore, reflect and challenge yourself.
Successful mentoring relationships go through five stages:
- Rapport building – getting to know and trust each other.
- Direction setting – agreeing on goals for your mentoring.
- Progress making – working together on your job search.
- Maturation – winding up the formal mentoring relationship.
- Moving on – sometimes keeping in touch informally.
Here are some things to think about in order to have the best mentoring experience.
- Prepare for each session by thinking through what you want to discuss.
- Be yourself – honesty and openness will help you grow.
- Reflect afterwards on what you’ve learned.
- Be realistic about what you can achieve between sessions.
- Take time to build a genuine connection with your mentor.
Most mentoring relationships are positive and really help mentees to reach their goals. Here are a few things to consider to ensure that you go into the experience with clear expectations about what mentoring is and isn’t.
- Don’t expect your mentor to fix things for you or act as your sponsor.
- Remember they’re busy too so agree clear boundaries from the start.
- Use them as a sounding board rather than relying on their advice alone.
- Don’t try to copy everything about your mentor – focus on what works for you.
- Avoid becoming dependent – when it’s time to move on, celebrate what you’ve achieved together.
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