What are the benefits of mentoring?
Mentorships provide unique professional development support that’s completely tailored around specific career goals. Mentor and mentee may even define those goals together, before breaking them down into bitesize outcomes which they’ll work through jointly. You won’t find a training course like it!
What’s more, mentoring is always a two-way street. While mentees feed off their mentor’s knowledge and experience, mentors find that they enhance their interpersonal skills and develop a fresh outlook to the workplace. And both get to tap into new contacts, businesses, working methods and approaches they might otherwise have never discovered.
Where does it fit into my membership?
Every member has full and free access to the BCS career mentoring network. That’s where you’ll find over 1000 other mentors and mentees all looking to develop their tech skills and credentials. You can set up a profile outlining the type of mentor / mentee you want to work with, as well as the specific outcomes you’re looking for and your required timeframes.
While many businesses nowadays offer staff mentoring programmes, the beauty of the BCS mentoring network is its independence. You can have candid conversations about your business challenges without the fear of repercussions in your workplace.
How will it help my IT career?
You might be in a new role, tackling a new project, or setting up a new business. Maybe you just want to bounce around an idea you’ve had. Checking in with someone who’s previously been where you are and successfully come out the other side... it can be just the boost of confidence you need to get on and nail your next move.
The key to mentoring is that it draws on experiences and know-how already tried and tested in a business environment like yours. In an industry as fast-paced as ours, mentorships provide a valuable L&D platform enabling professionals at every level to take the guesswork out of their business and career decisions. Why wouldn’t you?
