Mentoring at CUEA

CUEA runs a mentoring scheme each year that is open to all CUEA members, both alumni and students. The mentoring scheme has benefits for members at all stages of their education and career. Established professional alumni across many fields of engineering and related careers sign up to provide valuable advice to early career alumni and students alike.

Whatever your professional development goals, there is likely someone on the mentoring scheme that can assist you.

Whatever your professional achievements, there is likely someone that can benefit from your advice.

We launched the 2024/25 Mentoring Scheme on 20th November with a virtual launch event. If you could not attend, please contact Rachel at mentoring@cuea.uk for access to the event recording

CUED Students

You might be looking for CV or job application advice, interested in finding out more about a specific part of the industry or guidance on choosing your specialism. For postgraduate students, this might also mean advice on a career in academia – you are most likely to be mentees, but post-graduates may choose to be a mentor as well.

Early Career Alumni

You might still be looking for advice on CV and interview techniques, chartership and coaching through the first stages of Professional Development. You will also have invaluable advice for students a few years behind you as you are familiar with what the course currently looks like and have navigated those initial career steps recently – you might be both mentees and mentors

Established Professional Alumni

You provide a broad variety of extensive knowledge. You will be able to coach the other groups, share your experiences and support mentees those less experienced to meet their goals – you are most likely to be mentors

CUEA Mentoring Scheme Format for 2024/25

Thank you to everyone who took part in the mentoring scheme in 2023/24. We had 326 mentors signed up on MentorCity this year with 124 of you engaged in new mentoring relationships this year (many more choosing to continue relationships established in previous years). In total, you supported 161 mentees, made up of 100 undergraduate students, 14 postgraduate students and 47 alumni.

Launch: mid-November

We will launch the CUEA Mentoring Scheme mid-November with an online introductory event. From that date, students and alumni can begin setting up profiles on our MentorCity platform and searching for a mentor. Students and alumni are invited to join the event to learn about the platform, the changes that have been made, and tips for setting up a successful mentoring relationship. A recording of the session will be made available.

Matching: November to January

We will be using the MentorCity platform to facilitate the matching process. You will be able to search for a mentor or mentee yourself, using the platforms search feature. We will also run the platform's matching algorithm in December. The algorithm matches profiles based on common key words. This is overseen by the Mentor Scheme Coordinator, but with 300 active profiles, it is a time consuming process and sometimes unsuitable matches slip through, so we recommend trying out the search feature yourself to increase your likelihood of a good match.

Establishing Your Channels: until mid-January

The MentorCity platform will close in mid-January, so we advise you to exchange contact details with your mentors and mentees as soon as possible and take communication away from the platform. We have found, in general, relationships have been more successful when messaging and video calls are conducted independently from the platform.

Scheme wrap up

The formal part of the CUEA mentoring scheme will end six months after matching - we recommend maintaining a minimum of 6 months contact with your partner. You are free to continue your reationship after this time, but the support and resources offered by CUEA are intended to be most relevant in the first 6 months. At the end of the scheme you will be invited to complete a feedback survey so that amendments can be made to the scheme before relaunching the following autumn.

How do I get involved?

We are currently between schemes. We will be relaunching in the Autumn and information will be sent out via email and posted here nearer the time. The best way to keep updated about the mentoring scheme is to sign up to the CUEA

CUEA Mentoring Guide

Before getting started, you should read the CUEA Mentoring Guide. This details the commitment we expect from you and some tips on how to get started. Should you have any questions on the content please email Rachel at mentoring@cuea.uk.

For 2024/25 there are two versions of the CUEA Mentoring Guide. The Short Guide is only a few pages long and contains key Mentoring Scheme information, including the committment requirements, scheme timeline, information for the first and final meeting and a list of suggested topics. The Full Guide gives a lot more detail about the scheme, advice on getting started and navigating MentorCity and some question prompts and resources for each of the suggested topics to give your more support throughout your mentoring relationship.

CUEA MENTORING FULL GUIDE 2024-25.pdf

CUEA MENTORING SHORT GUIDE 2024-25.pdf

Mentoring Scheme FAQs

Why do you use MentorCity for matching? Why do you not use it all year round?
We use MentorCity to facilitate the matching process. It has in-built search functions so that mentors and mentees can search profiles based on key words to find a match. It also has a matching algorithm (which works by matching key words between profiles) that can recommend matches for those who choose not to use the search feature. We have previously used other systems with different matching processes, including facilitating matching ‘by hand’ without using a paid-for service, but as we have on average 300 participants and the CUEA committee is made up of volunteers with full-time jobs, this was too time-consuming.
In previous years, we found most value from using MentorCity to facilitate matches – after matching was complete, the majority of participants chose to administer their mentoring relationships independently from the platform, choosing to set up video calls on their platform of choice (Teams, Skype, Google Meet, Zoom etc.). We also found that the university email system frequently filters out messages sent through the MentorCity platform so many students were unaware that their mentor was trying to contact them. Finally, as the CUEA Mentoring Programme is free for participants, we have to consider ways to keep costs down – in previous years, MentorCity has proved high value for matching and low value after that, so as a committee we have made the decision to end our MentorCity subscription after the matching process.
My account Mentor City Account has been deactivated
There are two possible reasons for this:
1) Our MentorCity subscription is planned to be active between late October and late January/February (exact end date will be communicated by email in early January 2025). Outside this window, all accounts will be inactive as we only use MentorCity during the matching process.
2) If your account shows as inactive during the matching period, this is because either you opted to deactivate it previously, or you were signed up as ‘mentee only’ in a previous year. Mentees profiles only remain active for one year but you are welcome to participate again – please contact Rachel at mentoring@cuea.uk and she will reactivate your profile.
How do I find a Mentor/Mentee?
We recommend you make use of the search function – this will enable you to review the profiles of prospective matches and decide which might be your best match. You can do this by selecting ‘Find and Mentor’ or ‘Find a Mentee’ (as applicable) when logged into the platform. You can then use the pop up search box to filter by various topics and hit search! We will also run the built in matching algorithm in December – this makes recommended matches based on key-word matching between profiles. As there are typically around 300 profiles, the CUEA Mentoring team cannot review each recommended match in detail to assess how suitable the recommended matches might be, hence our recommendation to try out the search function first and foremost.
My partner and I are not a good match, what should I do?
There could be many reasons why a match is unsuitable – maybe you wish to commit different amounts of time to the scheme; maybe the mentor feels unable to support the mentee in their goal areas. You are not obliged to pursue a relationship if it is not a good match. You should be honest with your partner and can mutually agree to terminate your mentoring relationship. If it is still within the matching period, you can use the search function to seek an alternative match. If the matching period has ended and our MentorCity subscription, please contact Rachel on mentoring@cuea.uk for advice – she will be able to facilitate a new match.
My partner isn’t replying, what should I do?
We recommend trying to contact your partner 3 times over the space of a couple of weeks. If your partner has opted to display their email address on their profile, you could try contacting them both through the MentorCity platform and direct to their email address. If you still get no reply, please contact Rachel at mentoring@cuea.uk for more advice
My circumstances have changed and I’m no longer in a position to commit to the scheme, what should I do?
Don’t panic! We understand that life can be unpredictable and sometimes unforeseen situations arise that mean you can no longer commit to the mentoring scheme. If possible, we would advise you to contact your partner and explain the situation to them. Rachel can assist the mentee in finding a new mentor – contact mentoring@cuea.uk. Alternatively, if you are not able or do not feel comfortable contacting your partner to explain the situation, Rachel can assist with this as well.
I signed up as a mentor but have not been matched with a mentee.
Sometimes this can happen. We recruit new mentors every year and depending on how many mentees sign up, we may not have enough mentees for every mentor to receive a match. We understand that this can be disappointing and we thank you for your eagerness to participate in the scheme. We hope that you will agree to remain on our database of mentors, in case a relationship has to terminate early and a new mentor is required. We also hope that you will remain willing to participate in future years of the scheme.