Bristol and Bath branch: Mentor guide

It is not a summary of the overall programme, which is documented elsewhere.

It covers the following areas:

• Admin - where to sign up, web links, info on university timetables etc
• EDI aspects
• How to write a good profile
• How to be a good mentor
• Feedback required from mentors
• Professional behaviour

Admin

Sign up to the mentoring programme through myBCS - we are using the same programme, even though we are now targetting a new set of mentees, namely students.

We have a breakdown of each university's schedule, covering term start and end dates, exam dates and similar things that may help you in both scheduling mentoring sessions and having an early view of what your mentee might want to discuss.

We also have links to each university's existing support resources for students, so you should make sure that you are aware of these.

EDI aspects

We deliberately want to use this programme to address the disadvantage and under-representation of various groups of people in our industry and in society.

BCS already has five Specialist Groups that are relevant here:

• BCSWomen
• Digital Divide
• EMBRACE
• NeurodiverseIT
• Pride

If you are associated with any of these groups, or are otherwise able, as a mentor, to be of help to mentees who might be associated to them, please think about mentioning that in your profile.

Writing a good profile

Be aware that your profile is not simply about presenting the most impressive aspects of your career history or of yourself - it is rather an opportunity to present those aspects that might be the most useful to a mentee.

Think instead of sharing information about yourself that might let you find a mentee that you can help.

How to be a good mentor

There is plenty of information out there on mentoring, coaching and teaching, and in particular plenty of stuff on the distinctions between these.

In particular, be aware of the role of a mentor and how it relates to other people involved: understand what a mentor is, and what a mentor is not; read all of the material already provided by BCS in this area through the mentoring programme.

In our case, though, there is a little more to consider: while mentees in general will often be in work, ours are not - they are students, and so their day-to-day is very different, and they are even more inexperienced than other mentees that you might be used to.

Bear all of these things in mind as a mentor.

Feedback required from mentors

We aim to seek feedback from mentors six times during the academic year - this feedback is not about your mentee, but about the programme.

We do not intend this to be very burdensome, but we do intend it to be useful, so please do put effort into providing it.

Professional behaviour

While we do not require all mentors to be professional members of BCS, I personally encourage it; this would mean in particular that a mentor is required to behave in accordance with our Code of Conduct.

While part of the education of students will naturally lead them towards professional behaviour, and while it is entirely appropriate that mentors and mentees discuss professional behaviour and our Code of Conduct, please remember that it is the mentor who has signed up to this, either explicitly through a professional agreement to abide by our Code of Conduct, or implicitly by volunteering as a mentor; the student has not. A mentor-mentee relationship is not a symmetric one.