Job seeking in a foreign country could be lonely, disappointed or frustrated journey without a mentor ....

1. The Impact of Career Mentorship to the
Society?
Aug, 05 2015
Eric L.

2. • Who am I ?
 A volunteer career mentor dedicated to help the job seeking IEPs, Int’l Educated
Professionals, landing their jobs
• Who are the audience?
 Whoever concerns about the contribution of the IEPs to the local economy.
• Why this presentation?
The reason of this presentation is threefold:
 To raise the concern about the impact to the local economy due to the ignorance of the
IEPs’ capabilities by the Canadian employers.
 Discuss how career mentorship can help to improve the employability of the IEPs from
program planning, implementation and mentoring perspective.
 Discuss how mentorship can be expended to workplace and the community that impacts
our community.

3. What is the problem here?
Roberto was
a Senior IT
Engineer
back in Brazil
and now …
Zahid was a
Ph.D. Scientist
specialized in
Photonic
Research back
in Pakistan and
now …
Ana was an
Education
Administrator
specialized in
special
education back
in India and
now …

4. Is It Unfair?
What’s the
problem and
what can we
do about it?

5. What Makes the Disparity?
14%
3%
14%
Canada
wide
Ontario
wide

6. Why such Disparity?
• There are a few impediments holding the IEPs back from landing jobs.
 Insufficient skills,
 Canadian experience,
 Credential concern,
 language deficiency,
 Stagnant job market climate
• To gain an competitive edge before landing a job, IEPs required months or
even years to acquire:
 Necessary training
• Individual IEPs may be presented with different challenges, one common
deficiency, that hinders most of IEPs
 Development of job search skills

7. Response …
• The causes of IEP unemployment
 policy making
 collaboration of government and professional agencies
 employers’ attitudes
 economy
• Solution that helps the IEPs to better prepare for the job search
 In response to the issue, In-TAC (Int’l Talent Acquisition Centre: a non-profit organization
dedicated to serve the job seeking IEPs) launched the Career Mentorship program
aiming to improve the job search skills of the IEP job seekers.

8. Overview of Career Mentorship Program
• A community initiative by In-TAC that is dedicated to improve the job
search skills for the job seeking IEPs (a.k.a. protégés or mentees) through
training and mentoring.
• The Career Mentorship Training is for both protégés and mentors,
established professionals from the local industries.
• The program emphasized on:
 Intensive interactive learning, hands-on exercise and role playing
 Self-awareness, career goal setting, application of job search tactics, interview skills,
action planning and program retrospect.
 Mentorship through mentoring the protégés over the course of job search.
 Sustaining of the mentor and protégé community

9. Planning
• To better understand the effectiveness of the mentorship, lets look at the
development of the training
• Development cycle:
 Curriculum planning
 Job search skill training class
 Mentoring for job search
 Sustaining of the community
• The team comprised of five members
 A project supervisor
 A college professor
 A Federal manager
 A career counselor
 A IT professional
 A project supervisor

10. Curriculum
• The program coverage followed a typical life cycle of a professional job
seeker
 Understanding the strengths, weaknesses and goal setting,
 Understanding the hiring process and expectations,
 Community outreach and networking,
 Using social media for research,
 Preparing for interviews,
 Charting the job search course

11. The Class
• Emphasizing on practicality …
 Interactive learning in group setting among the facilitator/mentors/protégés/subject
matter experts through
 group & panel discussion,
 role playing,
 brainstorming,
 Video clips,
 case study and
 hands-on exercise
 Through the group learning and activities, participants acquire sharing, cross learning
and mutual feedback that directly contribute to the development of the IEPs’ career
research.

12. Launching the mentoring
 Mentors and protégés are paired for mentoring
 Work out their job search Action Plan
 action items,
 objectives of the actions,
 tasks to be completed for the actions and
 the due dates of the actions
 Following the mentorship class, mentor and protégé start to develop their
mentorship through mentoring
 Protégé follows the action plan to work on the job search
 Mentor offers advices and support that protégé needs
 Mentor and protégé work together to address the issues
 Mentorship follow through the job search journey

13. Community Sustaining
Share and Learn sessions for the mentors and protégés are in mentorship
 Segregation of mentor/protégé pairs during the mentoring stage makes the mentor and
protégé in helpless situation.
 Share and Learn sessions offer sharing of job search experiences, skills, intelligence and
that encourage cross learning among protégés and mentors.
 Mutual personal and emotional support give protégé/mentor a sense of security,
affirmation, being connected, encouragement and inspiration.

14. Definitions
• Mentorship
– Mentorship is a personal developmental relationship through mutual commitment between two
individuals, the protégé (mentee) and the mentor. Through the mentorship, the mentor with more
experience, skills, knowledge and wisdom in a specific context, along with the passion to serve those
who needs guidance. Mentor offers the guidance to the less experienced, yet achievement-oriented
protégé (in the same context).
• Mentoring
– Through the mentoring process, the mentor provides the experience, skills, knowledge and wisdom
through varied personal interactions and influences to guide the protégé toward achieving his/her
goal. Over a substantial period of time, the protégé matures to realize the goal within his/her context
of achievement. Throughout the mentoring, the mentor learns and grows personally from the
process and is fulfilled by the success of the protégé. Ultimately, the protégé is transformed to
another stage of his/her life
(Bozeman, Feeney, 2007, p. 5, p.731), (Farren, 2008, p.1)

16. Leading a sustained community
• For those has been unemployed for a substantial period of time, they
need mental and mutual support in a community dedicated for this group
of disadvantage people.
• What kind of leader is required to lead and build the community.
 Can the career mentor be the leader of this community? Can the mentor capable
enough to build and sustain this community? Otherwise, what kind of leader who is able
to do all these?
Mentor needs to equip as leader by complementing the mentorship
attributes

17. The role of ….
• Servant Leader
– From vision and calling to serve then to lead a community of in need
• Mentor
– From being pleaded to serve and guide the protégé in a one-on-one relationship

18. From mentorship to leadership
• The evolution of mentorship to servant leadership
Goal:
Transformation

19. Conclusion
• What does the protégé earn?
 Protégé transforms into a better career life, gain the personal growth and earns the friendship with the mentor.
• How protégé could contribute?
 When protégé become mature in their career life, one may choose to become the next generation
mentor helping other IEPs for the job seeking
• What do the mentor benefit?
 During the mentorship, mentor benefits from a deepen relationship with the protégé, earns the
mentoring skills and opportunity to evolve into a servant-leader.
• What mentor could further contribute to one’s workplace?
 The majority of the employment in our labor market is on contract basis.
 Employee becomes a tool than talent resources
 Employee desperately needs development
 When mentor goes back to the workplace, one can help the development of new or peer co-workers
• What mentorship training program could contribute to the labor market?
 More than just helping the protégés land their desired job
 The program can have far-reaching effects that prepare mentors to develop the new generation
mentors, coaches, workforce and leaders in the community which will further contribute to the well-
being of our society.