mentoring

As part of her participation in the Leading Edge program of Women & Leadership Australia, mentoring committee member Michaela Froehlich undertook a project that focused on mentoring. She conducted a survey, with additional help from Markus Mosbech, reaching out to each mentee and mentor individually to gain a better understanding of both needs.

Through the ECR committee, she received feedback about what ECRs would like in terms of information sessions and workshops. Michaela consulted with the ANU NECTAR Mentoring Program facilitator, Ozgecan Ozyildirim about how to run a successful mentoring program and investigated a number of mentoring platforms.

Following feedback, the ECR’s top preference for an information session was “preparing for interviews”. At the annual workshop, the committee ran a session where guest presenter Hrayr Matevosyan from the University of Adelaide gave a presentation on the career path from particle physics to data science with tips on preparing for interviews and Sue Barrell (AO) from SUPL Ltd and the Advisory Board shared tips on how to approach applying for jobs. This was followed by a broader Q&A session involving other Centre members.

The committee also launched the Centre’s Mentoring Program 2.0 where they summarised the survey feedback, outlined the benefits and expectations of a mentoring program and the responsibilities of participants. The Centre has signed up to Mentorloop Pro which will be launched in early 2023 and open to all Centre members including professional staff.

Other mentoring activities in the Centre included the ECR Committee sitting on the Executive and Research Committee meetings, aiding their development as future leaders, as well as more informal mentoring activities like the participants on the National Quantum and Dark Matter Road Trip. Road trippers that had not engaged with the media previously, received media talking points from the Centre’s Media and Communications Officer as well as support from more experienced members on the road trip for radio, print and television interviews. In addition, the participants also gave presentations at schools and public events and afterwards they discussed them with fellow road trippers and identified ways to refine and improve them at subsequent events.