Ben’s experience as a Mentoring Works volunteer
Name: Ben Morgan
Company and role:
Expedia Group, Senior Analyst
BIG Alliance programme: Mentoring Works
What motivated you to volunteer as a mentor via your company’s volunteering programme?
Young people are under so much pressure to perform well academically, maintain good social lives and make life changing decisions such as whether to go to university. This is in addition to difficulties that previous generations have not had to deal with, including the rise of social media and a global pandemic. I was keen to see whether as a mentor, I would be able to give any clarity in a crucial time of a young person’s life, as well as taking the opportunity to reflect back on my own career and choices I’ve made.
When I left school, I didn’t have a clear idea of what career options were available to me, and my sixth form college seemed to only focus on the traditional, and expensive, route of going to university. I believe I would have significantly benefitted from having an external mentor who was able to understand my interests and offer impartial guidance.
How has your experience as a mentor been so far? What have you enjoyed?
I have thoroughly enjoyed the programme so far. My mentee and I started by taking some of the career ideas they’d had and working backwards to identify the tangible steps they’d need to take to get there. I loved watching their ideas evolve and seeing my mentee take ownership of the conversations by driving the agenda with questions they’d come up with from their research.
We followed this up with activities such as mock interviews and CV writing to give them an idea of how the steps look in practice – processes I had limited knowledge of when I was at a similar stage in life. I was very impressed at how familiar my mentee became with a typical recruitment process and the way they grew in confidence as these activities progressed. Both were great to see!
What do you hope to have achieved by the end of it?
I hope my mentee gains a better understanding of what to expect from the world of work, along with more clarity on the roles they were considering before the mentoring programme. Thinking about one’s career and future should be fun and exciting, so I hope my mentee has been enjoying our sessions!
From a personal perspective, I aspire to build more active listening and coaching skills, which I plan to use in my own career. I’ve also grown in confidence over the year, so it’s definitely been a win-win situation!
What advice would you give to your colleagues who are thinking about volunteering?
Become a mentor! Don’t feel that you’re not qualified to do it, or that you wouldn’t make a good mentor – a lot of the time, just having someone to listen and give an open-minded opinion is invaluable for a young person.
Do you work for a company or community organisation that would be interested in the Mentoring Works programme? If so, contact maria.tonchievici@thebigalliance.org.uk