Society adds online version to mentor scheme

An online version of its popular career mentoring scheme has been launched by the Law Society of Scotland, with the aim of expanding this side of its career development service.

Since its introduction in 2014, 150 mentees have successfully been matched with a mentor through the previous scheme. The new platform will allow mentors and mentees to select their own matches. 

Mentoring helps mentees to set out and achieved career and personal development goals, while mentors can become role models while gaining valuable skills.

Olivia Parker, careers development officer at the Society, explained: “Our new mentoring platform works a little like online dating, but without the swiping(!) and profiles will be anonymised. This will put the decision-making into the mentor and mentees’ hands, rather than relying on our team to manually match mentoring couples together. Mentors and mentees will both create their own profiles, then be able to find the best match for themselves.

“There’s no hard and fast rule for what makes a good mentor and you don’t need to be at a certain stage of your career. You just need to be keen to learn the skills to be an effective mentor and commit to the scheme and your mentee when the time comes. Similarly, there’s no ‘typical’ mentee. You’ll know if you have a specific goal in relation to your career, and as long as you have an idea of what your ideal end-result might look like, a mentor can likely help.”

Rachel Shaw from RBS, who has previously been a mentee on the scheme, said: “I signed up for the career mentoring scheme early on in my traineeship. I was paired with a partner from a private practice firm and found it really beneficial chatting to her about the profession and hearing about her experiences. My mentor was very approachable and we got on well – I'm really glad I signed up for it."

A short information session for prospective mentors and mentees will be held on Tuesday 22 January from 6-7pm at the Law Society offices in Edinburgh. Please register your interest to attend by emailing oliviaparker@lawscot.org.uk.

For more about becoming a mentee or mentor, see the Society's website.