The Cocoon Job-Market Mentoring Program: Mentor Feedback

A few days ago, I posted (and have since updated) feedback Helen De Cruz and I received from mentees who participated in our Job-Market Mentoring Program this past year. Our plan is to use that feedback, as well as feedback we received from this year's mentors, to improve the program this year. Indeed, we hope announce the changes we make to the program along with a signup start-date for this year's program soon (so stay tuned!).

However, before we move forward with this year's program we would like to present the feedback we received from this year's mentors. We would like to share this feedback in large part because we would like to do what we can to encourage more mentors to sign up this coming year. One of the main problems we ran into this past year was that we had significantly more mentees in need sign up for the program than mentors--so we unfortunately had to leave some people in need unmatched. Our hope is to do better this year, but in order to do so, we need mentors to sign up! Consequently, I'd like to humbly ask you all to please share this post as widely as you can, particularly to people in tenure-track jobs who could potentially volunteer a mentor. Thanks in advance to all of you who do!

What follows, at any rate, is feedback we received from this year's mentors so far. Although we have only received from a handful, we will update the feedback continuously if/when we receive more responses (thanks again to all of this year's mentors, whose participation we are deeply grateful for!):

FEEDBACK FROM MENTORS

Question #1: Types of mentoring provided?

'I looked over both of their materials and gave them feedback over Skype and email on that front. I also answered some questions throughout the process.' - Alex Guerrero (Rutgers University)

'I read all of his dossier materials, did a mock interview with him via skype, have been in steady phone and email contact about all the various stages of the process (and specifically in preparation for individual interviews), and also contacted schools on his behalf as an informal reference.' - J. Aaron Simmons (Furman University)

'I reviewed dossier materials and discussed some interviewing best practices.' - Carlos Mariscal (University of Nevada Reno)

'Suggestions on strategies about applications, improving dossier documents' - Anonymous Mentor

'I reviewed [my mentee's] dossier and sent detailed comments back to him. I sent him my teaching dossier as an example when he requested it.' - Anonymous Mentor

Question #2: do you have any feedback (positive or negative) on the program?

"I enjoyed taking part in the program once again. I think it is run very smoothly and both of my mentees this year, as well as my mentee last year, have been very appreciative." - Alex Guerrero (Rutgers University)

"I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to participating again in the future. The main thing that worked well was that our areas of specialization were close enough for me to give really substantive feedback (and not just general thoughts)." - J. Aaron Simmons (Furman University)

'I probably should not have taken up mentoring so quickly after receiving a job, but I felt compelled to pay it forward. That said, it was good to pair me with someone who’d been on the market before, as he needed less hands-on mentoring than someone who was new to the entire process. - Carlos Mariscal (University of Nevada Reno)

"I did think it would have been even better for the mentee if the mentor did research in the same subfield of philosophy. However, depending on what the mentee is looking for, this isn’t actually necessary. To the extent that my mentee was looking for advice and strategies regarding overseas job applications, I thought I had the right experience to be able to help them take a fresh look at how they were approaching the job market, review some of their application materials, and explore some additional strategies and options." - Anonymous mentor

'I didn’t feel like I got to know my mentee very much, which wasn’t bad or anything, but was a kind of interesting aspect of the program. It felt like an anonymous review. But I don’t have any complaints. I thought it was a good use of my time.' - Anonymous mentor

Question #3: would you recommend our program to other potential mentors?

"I think it’s a great program, and it is very rewarding (and relatively undemanding) to serve as a mentor. Often, it’s helpful for people just to have an unfamiliar set of eyes look over their materials, and I have found everyone I’ve worked with to be very appreciative and easy to work with.  I find it a very small way to pay forward all the many debts I’ve accumulated in my years in the profession.  I recommend participating as a mentor in the program with great enthusiasm (also: warmly, extremely strongly, without reservation, and so on)!" - Alex Guerrero (Rutgers University)

"Absolutely. It is crucial for us to do everything we can to help new scholars to feel comfortable with the process and the quality of their self-presentation." - J. Aaron Simmons (Furman University)

'I would recommend this program as it was well run and I think mentoring is an important service to the profession.' - Carlos Mariscal (University of Nevada Reno)

'I feel like, as far as service to the profession goes, these kinds of mentoring programs are really important. I found it to be a minimal time commitment, as well as being somewhat gratifying.' - Anonymous mentor

'I would recommend the program to other mentors. I enjoyed being able to share some ideas and strategies that I’ve found helpful, and being able to put my experience to work for others. I also enjoyed the opportunity simply to encourage other philosophers, especially at a tough point in their careers. Sometimes I think our discipline isn’t as welcoming or inclusive as it could be (especially across national borders), and I thought that this program was a good step in a more positive and inclusive direction.' - Anonymous Mentor

Question #4: Do you have any suggestions for how our program might be improved?

'[Left blank]' - Alex Guerrero (Rutgers)

'[Left blank]' - Carlos Mariscal (University of Nevada Reno)

'[Left blank]' - Anonymous mentor

'Not really. I thought it worked substantively better than I expected at the beginning.' - J. Aaron Simmons (Furman University)

"I did try to encourage my mentee to be honest about how helpful I was being and to assure them that it was fine to ask for more/different mentoring from me. But I got the impression it was just a bit awkward for them (especially interacting remotely). A bit more reassurance from the program that it’s fine for mentees to clarify what they are looking for if they don’t get the help they wanted initially, and to encourage mentees to ask lots of questions and to ask for clarification as needed, might help to mitigate this worry." - Anonymous Mentor

Interested in potentially serving as a mentor? Please do stay tuned - Helen and I hope to introduce some changes to this year's program along with a start-date for new signups soon!

Comments

[Craig]

I'm curious if participating as a mentor is the sort of thing one would list on their cv?

[Marcus Arvan]

Craig: I don't see why not. It's a real service to the profession!

[R]

Just a thought: if you end up having more mentees than mentors again this year, a kind of second-best option might be to take the mentees who didn't get a mentor and match them up with each other. Then they can give each other a fresh set of eyes on their materials. Presumably this is not as helpful as feedback from someone who has successfully navigated the job market and maybe even been on search committees before, but it might be more helpful than nothing.

[Mentor]

Craig: I was a mentor last year, and listed it on my CV. My CV is separated into service to the department, to the college, to the university, and to the profession (the last category is where I put things like refereeing, and where I put the mentoring program); at my university, service requirements for tenure have to be relatively evenly distributed across these areas. It was one of the things the provost specifically noted (positively) in his letter concerning my pre-tenure review file. Plus I had a lot of fun doing it!