Choosing a Mentor

Other articles have discussed the difference between an advisor and a mentor. Ideally your advisor will become your mentor, but that is not always the case. How do you choose a mentor? What characteristics should you look for?

A mentor should:

• provide you with support and encouragement
• help you to learn from your mistakes
• offer opportunities for collaboration, joint presentations, and departmental talks
• help you to learn about writing and submitting manuscripts for publication
• be interested in your career area
• be able to provide support and training in your area
• model a successful academic career and training in your area
• be committed to help mentees make the next move in their career development
• demonstrate personal integrity
• introduce you to colleagues
• help you to identify and work with your strengths and weaknesses
• provide opportunities for you to develop independence

Mentoring relationships develop over time. Most of us have several mentors over the course of our careers: mentors for different areas (e.g., teaching and research) and at different times in our professional development (e.g., grad student, post-doc, junior faculty).

You will also become a mentor. Perhaps you already are a mentor to a beginning grad student. Consider the role that you might play in someone else’s professional development.