SEO Mentoring

We want our interns to have the best possible experience during their internships so they will be the top hiring choice at their firm at the end of the summer. Students are allocated an industry mentor to help guide them through their summer experience and ensure they outperform their peers.

Integral to an intern’s success during the summer is the support network of mentors. Interns can speak with mentors about how to turn their internships into jobs, how to navigate through the industry, specific job challenges, career advice, and personal questions.

Why it helps

Students taking part in the programme have already received pre-summer training on what to expect during their placement but we are keen to also provide them with one-to-one access to independent mentors working in the industry. As a group, SEO students come from backgrounds that are traditionally less exposed to client facing financial services roles. Often, they know far fewer people in the industry and can greatly benefit from the mentoring and networking opportunities provided by SEO.

What is a mentor?

(n.) a wise and trusted counsellor and teacher

Mentoring is a qualitative experience and is difficult to quantify. The benefits are not always immediate. It should be a symbiotic, rather than a parasitic relationship.

What are the benefits of mentoring?

To the interns:

• Mentors provide exposure to experienced professionals with a broad knowledge and education about the industry
• Mentors serve as sounding boards to help mentees develop a more mature perspective about the summer internship
• Having a confidante with whom he/she can be completely honest helps the mentee to develop a sense of comfort and belonging, which is particularly important to keeping talented ethnic minorities and women in the industry
• Having someone to cheer for his/her success and help troubleshoot increases confidence and self-esteem
• Mentors are positive role models who are successful and who prioritise giving back
• Mentors may help create additional networking opportunities, through the mentors’ contacts and the mentoring team

To the mentors:

• Mentoring provides an opportunity to evaluate the importance of one’s own professional relationships and to give back
• Mentoring is a direct means of showing your support of broad recruitment and developing talented individuals from diverse backgrounds to be successful in the industry
• Mentoring offers a chance for professionals to reflect on their own success and career path so that they can pass on wisdom
• Mentors get an opportunity to coach someone and further develop these coaching skills
• Mentoring teams and mentor/mentee events afford mentors their own networking opportunities with other mentors
• Mentors frequently have great admiration and respect for their SEO mentees and report back that they feel they gained more from the experience than the mentees themselves. Many mentees are remarkable and accomplished young people and many have overcome great obstacles

What is the skill set of an effective mentor?

• Ability to listen
• Ability to give constructive and helpful feedback
• Understanding of the importance of professional relationship building, particularly for people who come from backgrounds that do not traditionally have established networks within investment banking
• Honesty
• Objectivity
• Willingness to provide thoughtful coaching and guidance
• Non-judgmental about personal experiences, background, etc.
• Supportive, particularly when mentee makes mistakes. Desire to help mentee do his/her best and recover from setbacks
• Genuine compassion and care for young people starting out in the industry
• Ability to openly discuss gender, identity, ethnicity, etc., and to consider multiple perspectives about how these play into the workforce

Time commitment

We would hope that the time commitment should be no more than a few hours over the course of the summer. This would include meeting the student at least once for a coffee or lunch and then being available for follow up calls / emails during their summer placements and hopefully going on to include interviews for graduate roles. If a student requires any in-depth support this is something that will be provided by the SEO staff and alumni network, where possible.

Matching mentors to mentees

We typically look to match mentees to mentors based on some identified common interests or backgrounds. This can include any of the following - university of study, degree studied, ethnic background, regional background, personal or business interests. Alternatively if you feel that there is a certain personality type that you would be best suited to mentoring we can also look to ensure your mentee fits this profile.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor with SEO for the 2009 programme, please complete the Investment Banking Programme Mentor Registration Form or Corporate Law Mentor Registration Form to ensure we can identify the best match of candidate.

If you have any questions about the mentoring programme please contact info@seo-london.org.