At Lancaster we are very proud of our popular Career Mentoring Programme, which has been available to students since 2008. The Programme aims to match students with someone in a career or industry that interests them for the future, so they can get a proper insight into that role. Our mentors come from a wide range of jobs and backgrounds, with about 70% of them being Lancaster alumni.

We would love to welcome more mentors onto the programme this year. You’ll find it’s a very friendly and informal scheme, in which you will be well supported by Claire Lawrenson, our Career Mentoring Officer.

This is what one of our new mentors, Srishti Kadu from Taylor & Francis, Oxford, had to say about her experience of the role this year.

“The Career Mentoring Programme is a great opportunity for students to expand their network and learn about working life after graduation. This was my first year as a mentor and the experience was very rewarding indeed. I work in publishing, which at the best of times is a hard industry to break into, and during the pandemic it became even harder for students to gain meaningful experience in the industry. This prompted me to join the programme and offer what I could to students who wanted to learn more about the industry and get a glimpse at all that it could offer. Another reason I wanted to join the programme as a mentor was because of my own experiences as a mentee when I was still a student myself. As an international student wanting to broaden my horizons and learn more about the different career options open to me, I found the programme very enlightening and benefitted from it first-hand. As a mentor this year, the programme has been just as enriching and I have learnt a lot from my mentees in turn. Claire and the careers team provided a lot of support, resources and guidance, which as a first-time mentor I found extremely useful. As the programme reopens again this year, I’m really looking forward to meeting more students and guiding them through their journeys in publishing.”

But what do the mentees think…. well, this was a lovely message received from one of the mentees this year.

“Last night I went to Manchester to finally meet my mentor Becky in person and thank her for all the time she has invested in me and the confidence she has helped me build. At the end I managed to get three job offers and negotiate a higher pay thanks to the work we have done throughout the year. To celebrate, we went to a nice Japanese restaurant in Manchester and had such a lovely time together. Now I consider her a friend forever! Thank you for linking me up with such a positive and supportive person.”

If you’d like to obtain personal satisfaction by making a difference to the career development of a Lancaster student, please contact Claire - c.lawrenson@lancaster.ac.uk - for further details.