Cane2Cane

Cane2Cane is a community coordinated by UM’s Toppel Career Center. Students are able to gain networking contacts by connecting with alumni! With this new career mentorship platform, alumni serve as mentors who share their experiences as well as provide tips for career development. Cane2Cane also offers resources to help budding professionals as well as a forum for users to discuss how they have navigated their own personal development.

C2C has a personalization feature that will match you with potential mentors based on your major and interests! Once you have created and completed your profile, you can “explore the community” and message alumni with whom you share similar career interests.

How to Find a Mentor

Mentorship plays a major role in career development. Mentors provide valuable guidance and open up doors to opportunities that help push you along your career path. However, building this special relationship with someone can be difficult and oftentimes, it’s hard to figure out where to even begin. The following two articles share helpful tips on how to find a mentor and provide resources as to where to start.

How to Find a Great Mentor

Looking for a Mentor? The 7 Best Places to Start

Types of Mentors

A mentorship can take on many forms, and having multiple mentors that serve different purposes can help push you to be your best self in your career. Check out this article as it goes into detail about these 6 types of mentors:

The Path Blazer: These mentors have already been through what you are going through now and are considered to be experts in their fields or industries.

The Sounding Board: These mentors are great listeners and you are able to bounce ideas off of them. They are there to “generate confidence in or poke holes in your ideas.”

The Success Magnet: These mentors know the keys to success, as they are very successful themselves. It’s a good idea for them to be in a different field or industry so that they can share their experiences from a new perspective.

The Campaigner: These mentors are advocates for your success and will be the ones connecting you directly to opportunities and serving as references.

The Mirror Mentor: These mentors know you well and will tell you something like it is. They will challenge you and will force you to see yourself as you are.

The Reverse Mentor: These mentors hold positions underneath you and share perspectives from that lower level. They will make sure you are being true to your values.

Identity-Based Mentorship

As you continue your journey here at the U, don’t feel like you have to do it alone. There are many people rooting for you and wanting to guide you along the way. Find a mentor on campus! Whether you find them in a student organization, campus resource, or from our office through Cane2Cane or UShadow, you can find someone who will be on your side. As you begin to search for a mentor, one piece of advice is to make sure you know what you hope to gain from this relationship. Mentoring is a relationship, so you should consider what both of you can give and gain!

How our identities play into that experience is unique to each person. At times we can benefit from a mentorship that crosses over different identities and experiences, and some people benefit from a relationship in which they share common traits. Here at Toppel we have a Coordinator for Career Readiness and Inclusion Initiatives, Jose Arce, who can help point you in the direction of resources where you can find a mentor that will support you in each of your various identities.

Tips for Mentees

Mentorships work both ways. It’s important to find a mentor who is a good fit for you and your goals, but being a good mentee is just as critical. Below are a few tips you can follow in order to hold up your end of the mentorship:

Be willing to ask for help. Mentors want to support you but may not know how or when. Share the issues you are currently facing so that they can provide the assistance you are looking for.
Set expectations with your mentor from the beginning. Share with your mentor what you are hoping to get from your relationship.
Follow through with all meetings and commitments. Show you value their support by being punctual to any meetings you set and completing tasks that you have agreed upon.
Share what your short-and long-term goals are, and work together to develop a plan. When mentors gain a better understanding of your goals, they can better use their knowledge and resources to assist you.
Keep your mentor updated on how things are going.
Be open to learning from your mentor, and evaluate all advice and feedback to decide if it is right for you and your goals. The information shared to you from a mentor may differ from other information sources.
Express gratitude for any assistance received. Saying thank you goes a long way in showing your mentor that you value their time and appreciate them.

The Business of Healthcare Conference

Mentorship Resources

Questions to ask
Your Mentor

Mentoring vs. Coaching

Take advantage of this opportunity to network and find a mentor on Friday, March 27, 2020!

As the 2020 U.S. presidential election approaches, awareness is growing around the social determinants of health and the impact of politics and economics on the provision of care. This topic is not unique to the United States; it is being debated in countries worldwide.

To illuminate the many perspectives on this timely and often highly charged issue, The Miami Herbert Business School’s ninth annual health care industry impact conference will focus on “The Business of Health Care: The Social, Political & Economic Determinants of Health.”

The conference will bring together business and government leaders across the domestic and global healthcare sector to analyze challenges, brainstorm ideas and propose solutions to one of the most critical socio-political and economic issues of our time.

For general information, please send an email to healthcare@bus.miami.edu To register, click here.

There are a number of mentorship resources to explore whether you’re looking for a mentor or want to become one yourself! For instance, you can reach out and connect with individuals online on websites such as LinkedIn and Find a Mentor.

You can also take advantage of student organizations and several programs within the University that provide mentorship opportunities. Some examples include:

- The Miami Herbert Business School Mentor Program

- Empower Me First

- Health Professions Mentoring Program

- Big Brothers Big Sisters

- CaneBuddy

- Cane2Cane

Once you have identified a mentor, it’s important to align your goals with questions that will help you achieve them. Below are a few examples of questions to ask your mentor:

How did you build your career?
What experiences specifically influenced how you got where you are today?
What are some effective strategies in seeking a position in this field?
What trends or issues are currently impacting the industry/ field?
What skills did you develop during your undergraduate time that has helped make you successful throughout your career?

For a list of additional questions, click here.

People often confuse mentoring with coaching. It’s important to note the differences among them in order to identify an individual who can best assist with your career needs. Mentoring usually occurs early on in your career. A more-experienced individual usually shares their knowledge and insight with a less-experienced learner.

On the other hand, a coach is usually someone within your organization whose goal is to help you with a specific development- or transition-related goal. Read this article for more differences among the two concepts.