Graduate Students: Are You Taking These Steps With Mentors to Advance Your Career?

After you have established a mentoring team, it is important to maintain your mentoring relationships in a professional manner. Through your attitude and actions, you can show that you are responsible, and through your work as a graduate student, you can develop and demonstrate your abilities as an independent scholar and researcher.

Remember, the mentors on your team will have different perspectives and interests. For example, some mentors may feel that their role is to assist with revising articles for publication and to prepare you for conferences, but not to sympathize with your personal crises. Other mentors may be available to listen to your private concerns but not to spend hours on data analysis. Be realistic about what each mentor can do for you and be sensitive to each person’s view of your mentoring relationship.