Introducing E-Mentoring Southampton

Last month, we launched E-Mentoring Southampton: a brand new platform that allows alumni to connect virtually with students and other alumni in need of career guidance. Here’s how it works, and how you can get involved.

We’re providing a new way for alumni to engage with their global community, students, and the University. E-Mentoring Southampton means you no longer have to live near the city to offer your time, opening up our career mentoring opportunities to over 245,000 of you across the world from all walks of life.

And more than ever before – while they’re away from campus and unable to access face-to-face services during the pandemic – students are now relying on online support. You and your fellow alumni can help out from the comfort and safety of your own home, preparing them for the challenging job market they face.

Have you had interesting professional experiences since finishing at the University? Can you offer valuable advice to students and alumni? Do you want to share your skills and knowledge with the next generation?

Or maybe you’re one such recent graduate, looking for guidance on the path ahead? Perhaps you want to shift careers, and speak to someone in the sector?

E-Mentoring Southampton is the perfect platform to enable those conversations, and ensures you’re matched up with others of a similar background. There are already over 2,400 registered users, with a full roll-out to students due at the start of the academic year in September. What’s more, how you organise your relationships and discussions is completely flexible, and can be worked around your other commitments.

Alumna Lilian Strobl (BSc Psychology, 2012) explains why she wanted to get involved with online mentoring:

What attracted me was remembering how lost I felt when I was at university, and then how relieved I felt when mentors and experienced alumni would advise me on what to expect in my career. That gave me a more realistic perspective on what options are out there, and what following each one through would entail. I hope to inspire students to follow career paths that are right for them, and to help them gain new insights on who they are and who they want to be.

Students and recent graduates can benefit greatly from the career guidance of alumni like you, as current student Elly Veale, who’s registered on the platform, testifies:

“It’s great to be able to speak to alumni who took the exact same route as me, and to those who only left study a few years ago. I like being able to approach a mentor as a friend rather than a teacher. I think it’s important to hear from alumni to raise our confidence – it shows us that there are people out there who have been very successful from the same beginnings, and this allows us to finish university with excitement rather than fear.”

We’ve all become very used to chatting and working over video calls during the pandemic, so what better time to get involved with E-Mentoring Southampton than now? Register here, and begin exploring other profiles, your matches, groups, and events.