The DCIA Mentorship Plan is to assist and encourage DCIA members to share professional and educational experience, train and mentor each other within the organization, to improve technical and soft skills. DFWCIA Mentorship Committee organize and operate the plan and reserve the right to explanation.
Mentor:
Mentor is to provide support and encouragement to mentee/mentees, provide feedback on mentee’s progress, and meet with them regularly. Every DCIA member can voluntarily apply for a mentor position based on knowledge level and experience, and needs to be reviewed and approved by the DCIA Mentorship Committee before becoming a mentor. When applying for the mentor position, every applicant will specify up to 4 areas that they are interested to provide guidance in. Areas include communication skills, promotion, job hunting, resume advice, interview tips, technical improvement, interpersonal skills, career plan, leadership skills etc. (Please refer to registration form) Once an application is approved, before his/her first official appointment with the mentee, a mentor has to participate in an orientation/training program to get familiar with our training rules and policies so as to best serve the mentees and protect mentors.
One mentor can mentor multiple mentees in a session, depending on the topics and demands.
Eligibility
- current DCIA members
- minimum of 3 years of professional working experience
- eager to share their experiences and wisdom
- listen well and are great cheerleaders
- positively influence and foster another’s growth
- commit their time and expertise for 1+ program year
Mentee:
Mentee is responsible for seeking out opportunities and experiences to enhance learning, communicating effectively with the mentor/mentors, and use what they have learned from mentors to solve their problem. Every DCIA member can apply for mentorship service. Each year every member, as a mentee, can schedule up to 4 sessions (1 hour per session), looking for answers in a very specific area: e.g. communication skills, promotion, job hunting, resume advice, interview tips, technical improvement, interpersonal skills, career plan, leadership skills etc. If a mentee wants to schedule with a very specific mentor, that requirement should be considered and met.
Eligibility:
- current DCIA members
- want to grow personally and develop professionally
- want to become courageous leaders in their firms
- want to take charge in managing their career path
- are ready for the next challenge in their work lives
- take responsibility to connect with their mentors on a regular basis
*Assistant:
Assistant is to help organize meetings. Assistants will help to match mentor and mentee according to their needs and specialties. The assistants should try to keep a balance among people’s time and experience level and review ratings. Assistants will also remind all members to make use of this benefit, and provide guidance when a mentee doesn’t know where to start from or who to meet with. Assistants can apply to shadow a meeting and assist to break the ice, help to answer questions during a mentor/mentee meeting and collect feedback after each meeting from both mentor and mentee. Assistant position is voluntary and optional in each mentorship meeting, and its existence has to be agreed by both mentor and mentee. Ideally one mentee will be helped by only one assistant during one year.
Terms:
During the membership year, each member can request up to 4 mentoring sessions. One hour for each session. Sessions can not be carried over to next year or transferred from one member to another. As stated in the “Assistant” section, assistants will remind mentees to use this benefit during their one-year term. If a mentee would like to get more than 4 sessions a year, he/she can purchase another term for $20.
Schedule:
The meeting and discussion schedule is flexibly arranged, proposed by mentee, and approved by mentor. It is recommended that each meeting should specify topic and agenda beforehand.
Feedback:
After each meeting, the assistant will reach out to both mentor and mentee for feedback. The feedback is by default considered as personal and confidential. Feedback can be used by DCIA as reference to arrange further meetings so as to give some balance to each member if possible to better serve everybody. Feedback to mentor can be used by the person to improve his/her future mentor skills and program. Feedback to mentee can be used by the person to improve his/her future mentorship experience and career growth.
Summary:
At the end of each mentorship term, mentees are expected to submit a summary including what they have learned, how did the membership plan help them, have they achieved their plan, what help do they plan to get for next term(year), for the DCIA Mentorship Committee to document.