The purpose of this agreement is to assist in documenting mutually agreed upon goals and parameters that will serve as the foundation for our mentoring relationship. This agreement is expected to be a living document that is altered as needed throughout your time in the lab.
1. Goals (what you hope to achieve as a result of this relationship, e.g., gain perspective relative to skills necessary for success in academia, explore new career opportunities/ alternatives, obtain knowledge of organisational culture, networking, leadership skill development)
Mostly just want to learn academic & computational modelling skills
Goal is to learn enough coding to do interesting science. Go for Python/VSCode with seaborn.
How to set up an experiment, collect data, make/choose models etc
In BSc project, was in a group and mostly prepared. Learn how to set things up herself.
Learn about what it’s like to be a researcher; do I like the work / working environment and if I want to continue in academia
See if you want to join Monday lab meetings and Thursday joint lab meetings.
Write a nice MSc thesis by end of 2024, early 2025 (before internship).
2. Steps to achieving goals as stated above (e.g., meeting regularly, manuscripts/grants, collaborating on research projects, steps to achieving independence). What assistance (specific/general) do you need with this?
Collaborate with others on the project. e.g. Zan Mlakar, Sara Constantino (JW Bolderdijk)
Go through all the steps in the research process
Maybe discuss new research / developments in the lab / projects or something
Participate in lab events and discussions.
What expectations does the mentee have of the mentor?
Give honest feedback on my work
Be clear on what I need to do by when
Use the project tracking board to set priorities. Can set deadlines together, but timekeeping is ideally done mostly by you.
If I ask for help on something please actually help (very often people say that they’re going to help and then do nothing)
Be clear on what communication achieves (info sharing, request for help, etc); and if help is not coming please clarify!
What expectations does the mentor have of the mentee? See Vision and Working with me.
Communicate openly and honestly.
Take ownership of your research project. You will soon be the expert on the topic!
Know the limits of your knowledge and don’t be afraid to ask questions
Knowing how long to keep trying something, and when to ask for help, is a tremendously useful skill.
Organize your work, and practice good project and time management.
Meeting frequency (frequency, duration, and location of meetings) and communication plan (emails, slack, etc.)
meetings on demand (book through tinyCal in email signature).
On demand / with every next step in the process
Meetings preferably in person (unless we decide otherwise) for an hour or so
Communication via email
Any concerns the mentee wants discussed and resolved?
Please help me with the statistics and modelling, once it’s in place I can use it, but I’m quite bad at knowing what to do & how
Always start with data visualization to understand the data. We can discuss exact steps.
Any concerns the mentors want discussed and resolved?
Networking and embedding in research groups will be partially outside Leiden. Don't hesitate to take the lead on this!
How will you know when the mentoring relationship has served its purpose and needs to be re-evaluated, completed or terminated?
When my thesis is done
Plan for evaluating relationship effectiveness. (e.g., bi-annual review of mentorship meeting minutes, goals, and outcomes/accomplishments)
Don’t think this is necessary, but if you want could be at halfway point / end
Any additional areas/issues you want to discuss? Any sensitive issues that we discuss will be held in the strictest of confidence. Issues that are off limits for discussion?
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Mentoring agreement template
The purpose of this agreement is to assist in documenting mutually agreed upon goals and parameters that will serve as the foundation for our mentoring relationship. This agreement is expected to be a living document that is altered as needed throughout your time in the lab.
1. Goals (what you hope to achieve as a result of this relationship, e.g., gain perspective relative to skills necessary for success in academia, explore new career opportunities/ alternatives, obtain knowledge of organisational culture, networking, leadership skill development)
Mostly just want to learn academic & computational modelling skills Goal is to learn enough coding to do interesting science. Go for Python/VSCode with seaborn.
How to set up an experiment, collect data, make/choose models etc In BSc project, was in a group and mostly prepared. Learn how to set things up herself.
Learn about what it’s like to be a researcher; do I like the work / working environment and if I want to continue in academia See if you want to join Monday lab meetings and Thursday joint lab meetings.
Write a nice MSc thesis by end of 2024, early 2025 (before internship).
2. Steps to achieving goals as stated above (e.g., meeting regularly, manuscripts/grants, collaborating on research projects, steps to achieving independence). What assistance (specific/general) do you need with this?
Collaborate with others on the project. e.g. Zan Mlakar, Sara Constantino (JW Bolderdijk)
Go through all the steps in the research process
Maybe discuss new research / developments in the lab / projects or something Participate in lab events and discussions.
Give honest feedback on my work
Be clear on what I need to do by when Use the project tracking board to set priorities. Can set deadlines together, but timekeeping is ideally done mostly by you.
If I ask for help on something please actually help (very often people say that they’re going to help and then do nothing) Be clear on what communication achieves (info sharing, request for help, etc); and if help is not coming please clarify!
On demand / with every next step in the process
Meetings preferably in person (unless we decide otherwise) for an hour or so
Communication via email
Networking and embedding in research groups will be partially outside Leiden. Don't hesitate to take the lead on this!
**