There are so many things you can do to be helpful. Just sharing your experiences, your career path, and recognizing the difficulty involved in making career choices would be a great start. Offering information about your experiences can help put a student at ease. What do you wish you had known before you graduated or selected your career?
- If meeting at your place of employment, a facilities tour may be appropriate. Since students are trying to learn as much as possible about your career path, providing a copy of your resume and position description would be helpful.
- Ask questions about the student's academic program. Connections that you can point out between coursework and practical applications are very important. Some students may not have selected an area of study, but is simply exploring career options.
- Some students may ask for resume advice, so you may want to ask them to provide you with one before your meeting.
- Point out appropriate professional organizations and trade publications that can further the student's career goals or refer them to helpful contacts.
- Provide students with corporate literature including mission statements, policies, or planning documents that may be valuable to a student considering your career field.
- Review the types of jobs available in your profession, current hiring and industry trends, and trends about hiring that may be unique to your profession. You are not expected, however, to help students/alumni find specific employment.
- Encourage the student to ask further questions and if you would like, give them your business card. Emphasize the importance of filling out an online evaluation of this program so that can make sure we are providing a valuable service.
- Fill out an online evaluation yourself so that we know our program is working from the mentor's point of view!
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