Mentorships.

Up until now, research on the influence of mentorship on career perspectives in young researchers is scarce. It seems that, in academia, there is a consensus that mentorship is beneficial in general, but the extent to which the positive effects of mentorship hold in the long term is not clear.

According to Eby et al. 2008, mentorship has moderate benefits in terms of health-related, motivational, and career outcomes. 

However, this much depends on the type of mentorship. According to the Nature Neuroscience editorial from 2007, mentorship is highly recommended in an academic environment and can be productive even when there is a long geographical distance between the mentor and the mentoree.

However, I have a feeling that the topic has not been covered as in-depth as it deserves. Hereby, I would like to briefly discuss the following three aspects of the issue:

[1] Is It a Cloud Rather Than a Ladder?

First of all, the same as there are multiple types of supervisors, and there are also multiple types of mentors. This means that the same as in research, in mentorship there can also be a mismatch between two people. As people have a tendency to generalize, some successful mentors interpret their own coping strategies as the preferred way of living, even though there is not just one way of becoming successful or happy. 

Moreover, there was some research on the influence of having a single mentor, or a role model, on achieving personal goals. According to this research, mimicking your idol’s behaviours can, in the long run, pose obstacles to the development of your own identity, and decrease the chances of achieving a long-time success. 

What is the solution then? I guess, the solution would be building a decentralized network, where one mentee has access to multiple mentors. This solution sounds very obvious, however, I do not see this solution implemented.

A ‘mentor’ is still perceived as a form of a general practitioner or a coach. This person is scheduled for meetings on a regular basis. In fact, a mentorship system should be more of a cloud, where mentees would have plenty of possibilities.

They could reach out to more experienced researchers for help any time, any place.

[2] Mentor Versus Mentee: Who Benefits More?

Secondly, a stiff division into a mentor and a mentee can be highly counterproductive. Multiple studies have demonstrated that mutual mentoring in closed groups works best.

In this system, the participants mentor their peers, therefore, everyone becomes a mentor and mentee at the same time. According to Kram and Isabella (1985), peer relationships can provide much of the same career and psychosocial support as classic mentors.

Being a mentor to fellow students brings a range of positive benefits. According to Ghosh and Reio (2013), mentors themselves report greater job satisfaction and career success. These benefits touch self-reflection, motivation and a sense of self-value.

Mentoring others causes shifting attention from our own problems to other people’s issues. It also helps in getting a distance from your own situation.  

When I experience a bad day at work, I check what my students are doing at the moment. I try to solve issues appearing in other projects I am participating in. This keeps me from staying focused only on solving my own issues.

Furthermore, mentoring others helps you realize that everyone has their own issues. This holds true no matter how successful someone seems at first glance. It also reminds you that there is no true comfort zone in academia.

Therefore, mentoring and supervising others should be a natural part of the PhD training process. It belongs alongside writing research papers, presenting at conferences and writing a thesis.

[3] What Gives You a Sense of Success?

Lastly, it is still highly uncommon to treat your mentorship experience as a personal success. I have never seen a mention of a successful mentorship in any CV. Some general change in thinking about mentorship is necessary, as the ability to mentor others should be treated as a badge of honor rather than as a little extracurricular activity, negligible in a CV.