Mid-career academics - do you have a formal 'mentor' outside of your line management? Have you sought them out? Are they at a more senior career stage, or at roughly your career stage?
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yes, through dept mentoring scheme: make suggestions of who you think would be good (more senior in my/most cases I think), and then paired (trying to balance so mentorship spread out among staff). Mid-career folk then mentor people at earlier career stages. Thought this was standard across uni tbh?
Mentoring schemes at Exeter have existed in various formats since I've been here, but implementation seems very department specific, and more recently blurred with the academic lead/PDR process
yep previous less prescribed ones (one-step-beyond or whatever it was called) didn't really seem to be v effective from my experience - our new setup seems better.
As I approach mid-career, I am looking for a mentor. I have been assigned formal mentors before and a few times I seek out. I don't consider myself fit a traditional academic mold, so ultimately as my goals and vision for my career change, I continue to seek out new "mentors" to provide what I need.
I wished I had a reliable source where I can go to ask all my questions though, but my observation is that academics tend to just mentor you the way they have been doing things, not what you actually need. I have worked with a coach who is more helpful for what I need.
Yes and yes. Not just 'one', but different people for different purposes. Both peer mentors and more senior ones. Some formal, some informal. All sought out and approached myself, all bar one from outside my institution. Would highly recommend, I also 'pay back in' and mentor several people myself.
Yes, I'm not in frequent contact, but I do experience a yearly conversation as quite helpful. In my case that's a full professor in my field, but outside of my niche and at a different university.
I have formal and informal senior mentors some just a little ahead of me (mostly) which is super helpful! Some I held onto from being more junior and some I sought out.
Never used a formal mentor, but have always had mentors - always external to where I have worked. Several of my mentors are now long since retired, but still provide wonderful support. Have yet to see formal/required mentoring work very effectively...
Yes, through a university-wide mentoring scheme for new professors. Had to approach a potential mentor in my dept. I also have quite a few informal mentors. All are more senior. Someone wise told me to think in terms of having a community of mentors & I've always tried to approach it like that.
Yes, I do. A bit more senior than me, and from a different department in my faculty. Super helpful to get some fresh perspectives and some information about the faculty that my own department does not have
Wish I did. Never felt like I found the right person but also didn’t ask until I woke up and realized I was slightly past mid-career. Ideally would have been senior but in a different department, and either a different institution or at least very unlikely that we would serve on committees together.
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