Why do you mentor with King's?
I am a qualified mentor with several years’ experience of mentoring both Trade Union members and staff at King's. I want to use these skills to help others and I enjoy working in a learning environment. I volunteered for the King’s Connect alumni programme as I am part of the King's community and I remember how hard it was when I graduated and started my career 'journey'.
Earlier this year I mentored a former King's nursing student through the 3-month Spring mentoring scheme. My mentee chose me because she wanted a career change. The type of work she was interested in was similar to my current post/area of expertise at King’s. From the very outset, my mentee and I really hit it off. She was extremely positive about the advice and goals we set and told me that she was now much clearer and confident about how she could get into her chosen field of employment. We conducted our conversations through the online King’s Connect platform and it worked well.
How have you benefited from your mentoring experience?
It is very rewarding to be a mentor. It makes me reflect on my own values and career progression. It is a great feeling to be able to use your experiences to help others; I have worked for several employers and have overcome challenges (such as redundancy or wanting to pursue a complete change of career) which I am willing to share with mentees to help them formulate their own career plans. I enjoy building trust in the mentoring relationship and learning from my mentee. I find that focusing on someone else helps to put things in my own life in perspective. Mentoring enhances my sense of well-being, as I am helping someone to articulate their goals and can help them plan how they are going to achieve this.