Mentorship Launch Recap
No matter what stage of your education, training program, or career, having a mentor can help you to better navigate your career journey, achieve your goals, and overcome challenges while avoiding mistakes along the way. This still holds true for today’s modern age where despite the vast amount of knowledge available right at the touch of our fingertips, certain knowledge, insight, and skills gained through personal experience cannot be found on any search engine. The powerful relationship that can be developed between a mentee and mentor can have a profound impact on you and completely transform your career trajectory.
The LSCDS Mentorship Program had its Launch Event on Monday, January 16, 2023. This program runs for six months from January to June. The program aims to connect mentees with mentors (one-on-one) from diverse backgrounds and offer them the opportunity to network and learn more about the various career paths available in the industry. The 68 mentors participating in the program are from multiple industry sectors including Industrial Research & Development (R&D), Clinical R&D, Public Sector R&D, Science Policy, Medical Affairs, Business Development, Regulatory Affairs, Biotech Investment Banking, Intellectual Property and Consulting (Pharm, Biotech, Life Sci). The launch event had over 80 attendees comprised of mentees and mentors and allowed attendees to participate in two structured networking sessions followed by an open networking session to promote connection and communication between both mentees and mentors.
During the launch event, we heard from a guest mentor, Dr. Heather VanSeggelen on her perspective and experiences. Dr. VanSeggelen noted that one of the mentee qualities that stand out are a “mentee who’s proactive to set up the meeting,” as well as providing “mentors a heads-up in advance on what topic you would like to talk about [which] enriches the conversation if prepared in advance” and can help mentors provide better quality guidance and advice. She also highlighted how this program does not only benefit mentees, but also the mentors. In her experience as a mentor, she found she could further grow her people-manager skills and people leadership while “paying it forward”.
The mentorship program is a self-directed program, meaning that mentees take the initiative to reach out to their mentors and set up monthly (30-40 min) meetings (in-person, virtual, via e-mail, or telephone). Newsletters will also be sent out monthly to discuss various topics related to mentorship, skill-building workshops, networking opportunities, and more that can help you make the most out of the program. The skill-building workshops, which started last year were well-received by both mentees and mentors and included: how to market yourself for jobs, how to prepare for behavioral questions, what is a manager looking for, and more.
If you would like to learn more about mentorship and how to get the most out of your relationship with your mentor, watch our 2nd LSCDS Speaks podcast episode with Gina Parker, an emerging leader in the medical device industry who has vast experience with being on both sides of mentor-mentee relationships here!
If you missed out on this year's mentorship program but want an opportunity to network with industry professionals from a breadth of sectors, our next event will be the Networking Reception on February 8th (learn more here). Be sure to check the LSCDS events calendar and our recent January newsletter to learn more about our upcoming events. Don’t forget to follow us on social media – LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter to stay up to date on what we’re doing!
Photo credits: Vishal Sangha (LSCDS Mentorship Lead)
