AdvanceMent | FAQ Mentees

What are the benefits for mentees at AdvanceMent Freiburg?

AdvanceMent Freiburg offers you a variety of opportunities for career development:

• Career orientation through the exchange of experiences with the peer group and the mentor by obtaining valuable insider knowledge and identifying your own strengths and weaknesses
• Personal and honest exchange with an experienced professional about your own potential and goals
• Support in the development of clear career goals as well as in the planning and implementation of next steps
• Knowledge of formal and informal structures, processes and rules in science and business
• Insights into the path to a professorship or a new professional field
• Widening of your professional horizon
• Further development of your own career-relevant competencies and qualifications
• Expansion of an interdisciplinary network
• Access to and expansion of the subject- or profession-specific network via your mentor

What are the conditions for obtaining a mentoring certificte?

• Participation in the workshops accompanying the process (introduction, interim review and final review)
• Participation in at least four thematic/career-related workshops
• Participation in at least four peer group meetings
• Four meetings in the mentoring tandem
• Final evaluation for quality assurance and further development of the programme and writing of a final report

By arrangement, workshops from the CARD Learning & Development (postdocs) and GraCe (doctoral candidates) programmes can also be attended and credited towards the mentoring certificate in the event of illness or a scheduling conflict. Workshops from these programmes that were additionally attended during the term of the mentoring programme can be included on the certificate by arrangement.

What is an “early postdoc”?

You are generally considered an early postdoc during the first one to three years after your doctorate. With regard to the participation requirements, however, we deliberately do not specify a time period when the early postdoc phase ends, as it is possible to still be in this phase three years after receiving your doctorate (due to parental leave etc.). However, the @academia programme line explicitly addresses postdocs who are still in the process of orienting themselves for their academic career.

In other cases, you can benefit from the courses tailored to postdocs (e.g. on appointment procedures) as well as coaching services.

What is an “advanced doctoral candidate”?

An advanced doctoral candidate is usually someone who is in the final third of their doctoral project. This may mean that a significant amount of research and writing has already been done. However, it is important to note that the exact definition of what is considered “advanced” may vary by department. If you have any questions about this, please contact the programme management, who will be happy to advise you on when might be the right time for you to participate.

What are the costs?

Mentoring is a voluntary activity. Therefore, the benefits of a successful mentoring relationship cannot be described in monetary terms. Nevertheless, high costs are incurred for the administration and implementation of the mentoring programme. These are mainly borne by the University of Freiburg in order to support its researchers in their career development. In order to cover the costs for catering during the workshops and to be able to organize a kick-off and closing event, we charge an expense contribution of €60 per participant for the entire duration of the programme. In special cases, a waiver of this contribution can be applied for informally without justification.

How much time will I need to invest?

An intensive examination of your own professional goals as well as the planning and implementation of career-relevant steps naturally takes time. In order to gain real added value from the programme, you need to bring enough time as well as the will to actively engage in the mentoring partnership and the peer group and to participate in workshops and networking events.

In the all programme line a minimum of 4 career-related workshops must be attended. The process support programme with introductory workshop, mid-term review and final workshop are mandatory and must be attended.

We recommend that mentoring tandems exchange ideas between four to six times during the programme. The peer group should meet, self-organized and as needed, every four to six weeks.

Which language skills will I need to participate in the programme?

The goal of AdvanceMent Freiburg is to accompany academic and non-academic career paths in Germany. Therefore, the main language of the programme lines @academia and @newpathways is German. To participate successfully in the programme, you must therefore have a good enough command of German to actively participate in the networking events and workshops.

The programme line @flexAbility is primarily aimed at international and other English-speaking mentees. All workshops are offered in English. Each group negotiates the working language in the peer group for itself. When matching the tandems, the language preference of the mentees is taken into account.

Which programme line should I apply for?

No wind is favourable to him who does not know the harbour into which he wants to sail. (Seneca)

AdvanceMent is expressly intended to contribute to your professional orientation as a mentee. Therefore, your future career path does not have to be fixed before you start the programme. However, there should be a clear tendency as to whether you are currently aiming for an academic or non-academic career. If this decision is still unclear, individualised coaching for postdocs or doctoral candidates can help you make a decision.

The following descriptions can help you to find out which programme line suits you at this point in time:

You are a postdoc or doctoral candidate at the University of Freiburg and

• You are currently in a phase of professional transition (end of doctorate, early postdoc phase) and would like to take a closer look at the next steps in your career?
• Do you want to find out about career prospects on the non-academic labour market and lack role models?
• Would you like to gain an insight into a particular company, industry or professional field in order to decide whether you see prospects for yourself there?
• Are you wondering how you can successfully integrate your personal life situation, starting a family, physical impairments or personal values into the realisation of your professional goals and visions?
• Would you like to participate openly and actively in a one-on-one mentoring relationship and in your peer group in order to learn and develop together?
• Do you want to expand your career-relevant skills and your non-academic network?

Then apply for the AdvanceMent @newpathways programme line.

You are a postdoc or doctoral candidate at the University of Freiburg and

• are currently in a phase of professional transition (end of doctorate or early postdoc phase) and would like to strategically plan the next steps in your academic career?
• Do you lack role models to guide you in your personal career planning?
• Are you wondering how you can incorporate your personal life situation, starting a family, physical impairments or personal values into the realisation of your professional goals and visions?
• Would you like to participate openly and actively in a one-on-one mentoring relationship and in your peer group in order to learn and develop together?
• Do you want to deepen your science-related skills and expand your academic network?

Then apply for the AdvanceMent @academia programme.

If the above applies but you and you are an international doctoral candidate or postdoc and currently lack the necessary language skills to participate in German, then apply for the AdvanceMent @flexAbility programme.

How does the mentor search and matching work?

AdvanceMent Freiburg does not work with an existing pool of mentors, because each mentee should find the right person for themselves for current issues and career goals. This requires a current market research and precise knowledge of one’s own or desired work environment. The programme management supports the research and can also make suggestions for mentors in individual cases. In addition, the programme management makes the initial contact with potential mentors in order to clarify participation in the programme in advance. If the mentees already know potential mentors from their scientific community, they can also take over the initial contact (after the induction workshop), so that the official inquiry by the programme management follows.

Ideally, you have already thought about what your career goals are and what or who you would need to support you on this path before you apply. You may also have made initial suggestions in your application about who you could imagine as a mentor. However, this is not absolutely necessary. During the induction workshop, we will work out your priorities together, so that at the end you can research and provide a shortlist of at least three potential mentors. The programme management then makes an inquiry to the potential mentors and conducts an initial interview. Afterwards, mentee and mentor clarify expectations and goals in an initial meeting and decide whether a collaboration is conceivable. If so, they conclude a mentoring agreement and things can get started.

How do I deal with problems in the mentoring partnership?

If you notice a problem in your mentoring relationship, talk to your mentor about it. Explain what you are dissatisfied with and give your mentor an idea as to what you would like to see instead. If the problem cannot be resolved within the mentoring partnership, the program management of AdvanceMent Freiburg is also available to advise you at any time.

Contact:

Is there any subject specific mentoring available?

Depending on the subject field, there may already be a mentoring program of interest for you:

• EIRA Mentoring – for female postdocs in medicine

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• WVF-Mentoring – for postdocs of the faculty of economics and behavioral sciences

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• KITE Mentoring – for female doctoral candidates and postdocs in physics, chemistry, pharmacology, mathematics, computer sciences, engineering, biology and medicine

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