Alumni mentoring scheme

Alumni mentoring provides valuable real-life insights for students

Hannah Guzzetta-King (MSc Psychology, 2012), has been mentoring Exeter students since 2016 and is passionate about her involvement in the scheme. 

Here she talks about the kinds of help she gives her mentees and encourages her fellow alumni to consider signing up to help too.

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‘I found that the most important part of mentoring was helping the students understand what is required for a job (in the real world).  As we all know, it's quite daunting to read a job description for the first time, but once you break a role down and explain how their existing skills transfer to life after Uni, it becomes clearer how to they should write their CVs and job applications and how to get through interviews. 

I usually go through that process a number of times with the mentee until they feel confident and have a clear understanding of how to move forwards.  This usually requires a lot more thinking time from the student's side than the mentors, and our main task is to support and guide. 

The second most important thing is network.  It's hard to look for a first job without the advantage of having a good professional network.  I've linked people in my own professional network who may have higher levels of expertise on a subject or potential job opportunities to my mentees.  I am a supporter of guiding them towards networking with others, and leaving myself as a trusted safety-net contact.  

Lastly, I'd say that students who join the mentor programme are very keen and prepared.  They've done their research, have been to career fairs and have been thinking about long term careers for quite some time.  I haven't found a student that required baby-sitting or pushing.  They usually only need a little nod in the right direction which doesn't take too much effort from my side’.

Do you have more than 2 years’ work experience and could you follow Hannah’s example and mentor a student? We are currently recruiting alumni mentors from the following sectors, to join the scheme this autumn term and we would love you to join us!

• Law (specifically Criminal Law)
• Environment/Sustainability
• Psychology
• Media/Publishing/Journalism
• Advertising/Marketing/PR
• Finance – banking/investment

Find out more and sign up online.

Date: 9 July 2018