Mentoring FAQs and resources

A mentor is a more experienced or knowledgeable person who guides someone with less experience or a lower level of knowledge on a matter through their career or personal life. Mentors tend to be older , but that's not always the case. And WIBF prefers that you have at least five years of professional experience under your belt, but, in reality, anyone can be a mentor.

Mentoring involves sharing your knowledge, skills and experience to help your mentee progress in their career. You can also help mentees seek out new professional opportunities, either at their current employer or at a different firm, or develop a clearer idea of their career direction. You also need to make sure you have the time to mentor someone effectively.

While we have paired you with your mentee based on their needs and your experience, we find that mentors benefit from counselling skills (including active listening and a non-judgemental approach) and by being able to be sensitive and offer understanding. We also find that patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations often goes a long way. Have a look at our resources section below - we have lots of inspiration and advice for mentors.

What you want! We often find mentees want to determine their strengths and weaknesses, the day to day challenges faced in a role and set out career goals. Our mentee guide is designed to help you get started, or start the conversation with your mentor with this question.

Everyone is different. We just want you to take the initiative in the relationship, e.g. invite your mentor to meet with you, suggest a topic to discuss and ask for what you need. You can use email, scheduled phone/video calls, or meet in person to help you resolve your questions, confusions, concerns and problems.

First give it time. Either of you may have started your relationship on a bad day or on the wrong foot. However. if you don't feel that the match is giving you what you need, please get back in touch with WIBF's mentoring team.

The WIBF mentoring programme isn't available for students, but we do run special student mentoring programmes. Contact [email protected] to find out what is currently running.

If you have a Digital only membership and would like to upgrade to an All Access membership so you can request a mentor please contact [email protected]

Please download these instructions to see how to join the mentoring programme and onto Pushfar