Cross-Institutional Academic Speed Mentoring
Cross-institutional virtual speed mentoring offers the opportunity for a series of short, focused conversations about a specific question or issue you are struggling with, or a goal you are trying to achieve.
The next session is on Monday 20 October, 1.00-3.00pm.
Mentor applications are open until Friday 5 September - fill out this short expression of interest form.
See the University of Oxford website for further event details.
The event will be held online via Zoom.
About Speed Mentoring
At this session, which is focused on career and professional development, you will rotate around four different mentors, spending 15 minutes with each, to gain different perspectives on a personal professional issue you are seeking to resolve.
These sessions are a collaboration between the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Kent, Oxford, Oxford Brookes, Sussex and King’s College London.
If offered a place you will participate in short mentoring conversations with academics from a selection of the participating institutions. Those academics may or may not be based in your disciplinary area. The focus is on career development more generally, and gaining different perspectives.
Objectives
- Gain perspectives on specific career development challenges
- Consider new approaches in a space away from your normal working environment
- Increase your confidence
- Identify the missing piece from your CV and develop your professional profile, to put towards ADRs and promotion applications
- Build a support network outside your own team or work area to draw on in the future
Target audience
The session is open to early career researchers (ECRs). At Sussex, ECR is defined as staff on a research-only contract at grades 6-8, broadly encompassing research assistants, postdoctoral researchers and research fellows.
If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact the organising committee from your institution at researcher-development@sussex.ac.uk.
Registration
If you're a mid-career academic, sign up to be a mentor using this short online form.
Mentor applications will be open until Friday 5 September, and mentee applications will open in early September.
As part of the application process, mentees will be asked to describe briefly what you hope to discuss with the mentors, and what you’d like to get out of the session. We will use your responses to these questions as a basis for participant selection.
Places are limited and will be distributed between the participating institutions; please note that registering may not guarantee a place, though we will operate a waiting list if needed. If selected, you will be emailed invitations with joining instructions in advance of the event.
Making the most of the session
- As a Mentee
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Have you ever wished you could get 15 minutes with a senior colleague to ask their advice on how they would handle something? Or wondered how others approach challenging problems? This is your opportunity to find out!
In order to benefit fully, in advance of the session we will ask you to:
- Think about a problem, issue or challenge on which you would like input
- Identify any options you may be considering and think about the advantages and disadvantages of each
- Note down a one-minute description of yourself and stage of your research degree to provide context for mentors
Our mentors work across a variety of disciplines, in mid- to senior-level positions from other institutions. Mentors will provide advice from their own experience, and may or may not be based in your disciplinary area. The focus is on career development more generally, and offering you different perspectives from outside your work bubble. - As a Mentor
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Once the speed mentoring part of the session begins, we will sort you into breakout rooms with each of your assigned mentees in turn, and someone from our team will keep an eye on timings.
You should get 15 minutes with each mentee, with five minutes in between while we set up new pairings. You will not know in advance who your mentees are.
Part of the experience for both parties is to have a short, effective career development conversation in a time-limited window. As a mentor, you will provide advice from your own experience.
To ensure that the arrangement is productive and meaningful for both the mentee and mentor, you will need to foster the right skills to create an environment for growth.
Visit OD's mentoring webpage to find out more about the mentoring support available at Sussex.
Feedback - in 2024, 100% of participants enjoyed the event and would recommend to others
"This was an incredibly valuable session. It was great to have the time and space to really think about what I wanted/needed to ask/gather input on and to hear a range of perspectives from different mentors."
"It was well timed for me, and opened my eyes to new possibilities."
"I was surprised how much I could learn in short sessions."
"I had four very interesting and helpful conversations with four very different mentors. I asked them all the same question and they gave quite different answers, which provided me with lots to think about to help me be more proactive in shaping the next stage of my career."
"I got to talk to four experienced researchers who were all eager to help. They were really kind and understanding, which made it easier for me to share my concerns with them."