Information for Mentors

FASS Mentorship Programme

List of Content

Why should I participate as a mentor?
What is the role of a mentor?
Selection Criteria
Tips and Advice

Why should I participate as a mentor?

As a FASS alumni mentor, there are opportunities to:

Make a difference in a young person’s life, and give back to the wider FASS community.
Expand personal networks, raising the profile of your organisations, and possibly identifying potential interns and new hires.
Gain fresh insight and perspective into work and other issues from mentees.

What is the role of a mentor?

The mentor’s role is to teach, guide and help shape the professional growth and learning of the mentee by serving as a positive role model. By joining FASSMP, mentors are prepared to:

Commit to the one-year duration of the programme.
Share their experiences, insights, lessons learned and advice with the mentees.
Educate mentees on workplace expectations, advice on educational/career goals and highlight professional development matters pertinent to the industry.
Join us for planned events aim to promote greater interaction and bonding among mentors, mentees and with the larger FASS community.

If the assigned mentee is pursuing the mentorship programme as a credit-bearing course (FAS3551 FASS Capstone Career Preparation), the mentor would also be required to guide the mentee in completing the assignments for grading. For more information, please click here.

Selection Criteria

The programme is open to FASS alumni and the selection criteria are as follow:

FASS alumni who have been in the workforce for at least 3 years.
Keenness to guide current FASS students in their holistic development, exploring possible career opportunities, and be willing to share about their own life experiences in the working world.
Able to commit to regular contact.
Be receptive to mentoring students from diverse FASS majors and backgrounds.

Tips and Advice

We have consolidated the following tips and advice shared by the existing FASSMP mentors when engaging with their mentees. We hope this sharing will be beneficial to all mentors hoping to find new and better ways to engage their mentees. If you have other suggestions and feedback, we would love to hear from you.

Accept and guide	"When engaging with mentees: (i) Know what the mentees want. Listen actively with interest, holding the focus on the mentee’s agenda (ii) Manage the framework of the mentoring sessions, while encouraging the mentee to take responsibility for the content (iii) Help the mentee to see the bigger and longer term picture”
Be approachable and be open in the discussion	"I just treat the mentees like friends, talk about school, take interests in their hobbies and CCA to find out what is driving him/her in life to offer advice on what sort of career track will suit him/her, etc. This helps to break the barrier."
Encourage mentees to ask questions	“The overall strategy should be to ‘provoke’ and encourage mentees to ask questions and seek advice from mentors. Only students who frequently ask questions and advice, and communicate regularly, will get the most out of the mentorship."
Mentors as career coaches and motivators	“Mentors can regularly share career articles, reports, success stories, and their career experiences with mentees. This will provoke some thoughts and questions. More than mentors, they could also be career coaches and motivators - help with CVs, interview techniques, communications skills, networking skills, internship.”
Maintain active engagement with mentees	"Here are some potential ways to engage mentees: (i) Invite mentee for an office visit (ii) Encourage the mentee to seek for an internship related to their area of interest (iii) Introduce the mentees to their professional network, if appropriate (iv) Invite mentees to talks or company events, where applicable"