Gain mentoring support from multiple experienced academics in our innovative speed mentoring format.

About this event

Have you ever wanted some advice from a senior colleague who isn’t formally connected to you? Have you ever wondered how others approach challenging problems? Are you interested in perspectives from other academic environments? This is your opportunity. We are bringing together experienced academic researchers for a speed mentoring session so that they can offer you their support and advice.

Speed mentoring offers you the opportunity for a series of short, focused conversations about a specific question or issue you are struggling with or a goal you are trying to achieve. At this session, which is focused on career and professional development, you will rotate around four different mentors, spending 15 minutes with each, to gain different perspectives on a personal professional issue you are seeking to resolve. 

This session is being run in collaboration across the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Kent, Oxford, Oxford Brookes, and Sussex and King’s College London. If offered a place you will have the opportunity to participate in speed mentoring sessions with academics from a selection of the participating institutions. Those academics may or may not be based in your disciplinary area. The focus is on career development more generally.

Registration

Please complete this brief form to register your interest. As part of the application process, you will be asked to briefly describe what you hope to discuss with the mentors and what you’d like to get out of the session. We will use your responses to these questions as a basis for participant selection. You will be notified of the outcome during the week commencing 6th November. Successful applicants will be asked to attend a 10-minute online briefing. Registration deadline: 4pm Friday 3rd November.

Making the most of the session

In order to benefit fully, in advance of the session we will ask you to:

• Think about a problem, issue or challenge on which you would like to gain input.
• Try to identify any options you may be considering and think about the advantages and disadvantages of these.
• Note down a one-minute description of yourself and your role that provides context.

Objectives

You will have the opportunity to:

• Get help with addressing a particular career development challenge.
• Consider new approaches in a space away from your normal working environment.
• Increase your confidence.
• Build a support network outside your own team or work area to draw on in the future.
• Understand and gain insight into the sector more broadly.

Target audience

Early career researchers on fixed term contracts. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact: development.pda@admin.cam.ac.uk.