Career Break Mentoring

23/07/2024

Josephine Simone is a Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Victoria University, conducting a doctoral study in the career breaks of women in STEM. She has written this article with Dr Selvi Kannan from the College of Science, Technology and Engineering at the University of Tasmania.

In today's fast-paced professional environment, career breaks can significantly impact one's professional and personal life. The importance of effective career break mentoring is now more critical than ever.

The right mentor can be pivotal in navigating these challenging transitions, ensuring individuals thrive rather than flounder. But how does one identify a suitable career break mentor? What essential qualities should an ideal mentor possess in these turbulent times? The stakes are high, and finding the right answers is crucial for success.

Career Break Mentoring Study

Our study involving a group of post-doctoral women in STEM, provided valuable insights about their career break mentoring arrangements. They were found to play a critical role in supporting individuals whilst they were navigating changes in their professional and personal circumstances when taking a career break.

Participants described their career break mentoring experiences as “absolutely integral”, “a safe place”, “helpful” and “the only thing that got me through at that time”. These positive insights were analysed to explain career break mentor characteristics, career break mentor arrangements and suggested steps when both selecting and reassessing career break mentor suitability.

This study advocating career break mentoring, is well aligned to the Women in STEM Decadal Plan, in particular to Recommendation 3.3 that articulates to “develop best practice guidelines for mentoring and leadership programs across the STEM ecosystem and support initiatives that work”.

Career Break Mentor Characteristics

The insights gathered across the group of women in STEM about their career break mentoring experiences revealed some key characteristics of what they perceived contributed to a good career break mentor. Below identifies these key characteristics and also highlights the captured voices of the women in STEM.

• Relatable: Relatability was a critical contributor towards establishing a strong rapport with an individual, as without this connection, discouragement could take hold and compound the challenges faced by an individual when taking a career break. One participant who had experienced several unsuccessful mentoring arrangements in the past, voiced this link, highlighting the importance of being able to “gel with your mentor” as it can otherwise “be really depressing, because you've got someone telling you to do something that seems an impossibility in your life”.
  
  
• Accessible: Continued accessibility of a mentor was important, particularly in providing support in relation to emerging work and life challenges experienced by an individual when taking a career break. One participant spoke of her appreciation in having continued mentor support during what she described was “a very isolating time” whilst away from the workforce.
  
  
• Knowledgeable: Knowledge about career development was essential for a mentor to have, given the interruption to an individual’s career that occurs when taking a career break. One participant specified how they discussed “career steps to take and building my CV” with their mentor to continue their career development when taking a career break.
  
  
• Understanding: Resonation by a mentor towards an individual’s circumstances was required, as it permitted a deeper understanding towards an individual’s career break situation. One participant who experienced post-natal depression, spoke of having a mentor who had similar prior experiences. Due to this mentor resonation, they described their mentor as “someone who totally understood that you can have all these plans and they go out the window and had been through it” and also spoke of how she felt her mentor’s “advice was very relevant”.
  
  
• Non-judgemental: An objective and impartial approach towards changes in circumstances and wellbeing was necessary. This approach enhanced confidence in one participant when addressing work challenges, as she says she could: “have discussions I wouldn't necessarily have with my direct boss” and provided assurance to another participant when addressing career challenges, knowing that it “wasn't going to affect my career in any way”.

Career Break Mentor Arrangements

Our research findings also conveyed an understanding of the variations in career break mentoring arrangements across the group of women in STEM. Some participants had a single mentor, others had multiple mentors simultaneously, and some were affiliated with a female mentoring group. Mentors were sourced from within an organisation (the same department or different department of a participant), external to an organisation, or from a participant’s existing professional network.

Mentors supported all aspects or very specific aspects of the participants' work, life, and career development. The timing of mentor arrangements differed amongst participants, with some having mentor arrangements prior to leaving the workforce, whilst they were away from the workforce and when they returned from the workforce, whilst others had a mentor for only part of this duration.

Career Break Mentoring Steps 

These key insights were used to develop steps for identifying a suitable mentor prior to taking a career break. It is recommended that these steps be revisited while an individual is away from the workforce and again upon their return, to re-assess mentor suitability in light of the continuous changes that occur in their work and personal life.

1. Establish career break mentor needs: 
   (a) Confirm an individual’s work, life and career needs and goals. 
   (b) Decide which work, life and career needs and goals require mentor support.
   
   
2. Identify potential career break mentors: 
   (a) Individual’s existing professional network.
   (b) Within and external to an organisation.  
   (c) Female mentoring groups or female networks. 
   
   
3. Align career break mentor experiences with career break mentor needs: 
   (a) Ascertain the similarity of a mentor’s prior experience. 
   (b) Ascertain the diversity of a mentor’s prior experiences. 
   (c) Align mentor’s experiences with the individual’s career break mentor needs work, life and career needs and goals. 
   
   
4. Confirm career break mentor arrangement 
   (a) Determine preferred mentor arrangements (one mentor, multiple mentors, female only mentors, mentor group, mentor within organisation, mentor external to organisation). 
   (b) Review and shortlist potential mentors. 
   (c) Approach potential mentors to determine interest.  
   (d) Organise initial communication with each selected mentor. 

Career break mentoring practices can be adopted by both individuals and organisations when putting mentoring arrangements in place. They can support the retention of women in the STEM workforce and contribute towards the overall health of the STEM ecosystem. At an individual level, engaging with a knowledgeable mentor has proven from the study that it helps one navigate their career break better.