What are the benefits to being a mentee?

You may receive a number of benefits from being in a mentoring relationship, including:

• Gaining from your mentor’s experience and expertise
• Learning specific skills and knowledge that are relevant to professional and personal growth
• Networking
• Receiving critical feedback in key areas that you can use to change your technical and management skills

General Mentoring Program considerations:

Before entering into a mentoring agreement, mentees should consider:

• What aspects of your career or life are you hoping to improve via a mentoring arrangement?
• Is a mentoring arrangement a suitable way to meet your goals?
• How much time and effort do you anticipate will be required?
• How much time and effort are you willing to put into the mentoring arrangement?

As a mentee you need to remember that you, not your mentor, will manage your own career and life choices - a mentor is there to help you learn to ask the right questions and guide you toward resources that will help you to make these choices.

Time is a big consideration.  You and your mentor are both very busy professionals.  You both will have to make the maximum effective use of the time that is available for the mentoring relationship.

Also, don't expect your mentor to give you a job. While some mentoring relationships can lead to paid work, expecting your mentor to make job offer is overstepping the boundaries of the relationship. A mentor can be a valuable resource for introductions and job leads. Your mentor is there to help and teach, not to hire.

Pilot Program Considerations:

The 2008 Program will only be 9-months in duration.  This does not prevent you and your mentor from personally deciding on continuing the mentoring relationship you have established.  It only means that your TCC leadership will be evaluating the results and revising the program for future years.

For the Program Year 2008-2009 we are setting a goal of 15-18 mentees to participate.  We plan to kick off the program in September 2008, but that will depend on the extent of participation and our ability to successfully match mentees to mentors.

We realize that you and your mentor are both busy professionals and that your time is extremely valuable.  Even though there is no formal minimum time requirement over the 9-month period, we ask that the mentoring pairs try to achieve a goal of approximately 90 hours over the 9-month period for the mentoring relationship.  Admittedly, every relationship is different based on a number of factors, but mentoring has to be of real value, and value is hard to achieve without some investment by the parties involved.  The amount of time generally needed is also one of the factors the Board wants to evaluate for future program years.

Additionally, to help us evaluate the needs of the Chapter membership and to evaluate the overall program we are asking that you and your mentor jointly complete a simple and short Mentoring Agreement Mentoring Agreement which the mentor will forward to either of the below POC’s. 

Yes, I want to participate!!!

If you are a current member of Tyson’s Corner Chapter and wish to be a mentee, please obtain the Mentee Form from either Peter or Alex (contact info listed below), attach your current resume, and submit your package to them.  We will contact you when we’ve reviewed your information.

Aaron Drabkin
VP - Mentoring Program
703.891.1073 office
adrabkin@microtech.net