Volunteer mentors find ways to be most effective

June 13, 20192 minute read

Read more about the opportunity to mentor a military spouse.
AWESOME Leaders have focused recently on opportunities to “reach back” and help other women by providing support and counsel as a mentor. AWESOME’s Executive Director Heather Sheehan said, “We encourage AWESOME leaders to become mentors – either for an active military duty spouse through the wonderful program with American Corporate Partners or for any woman in an earlier stage of her career. This is an important part of ‘reaching back’ to help other women.”

“Mentors at the AWESOME level of leadership will have much of their own experience to draw from,” she continued. “But it can also benefit their own development to learn more, hone their skills, and continue to mentor.”

“Reaching back” is one of the five dimensions of Reaching Beyond and Achieving More – the 2019 AWESOME Symposium theme. AWESOME is collecting and providing helpful insights about mentoring for people who have their own depth of experience but who have not previously mentored or who want to refresh their mentoring skills.

As a reminder of what mentoring can mean to a young career woman, NAWBO (the National Association of Women Business Owners), another organization partnering with ACP, shares the story of a mentor/mentee relationship that provided significant help to re-design a career that had been sidetracked by a relocation. By working with mentor Margaret Brown, a digital marketing expert, Karen Hadley, whose husband is in the Army, was able to launch a business that allows her to work remotely.

Mentor Margaret calls the collaboration a “’win-win” and says, “I got involved in this because it was in my wheelhouse and it was an opportunity to help our Armed Forces…I thought I could really make an impact on a young woman who is just starting her business and who is brilliant, but can’t have a traditional job because of her husband’s career.”

An article on forbes.com covers one area where mentoring often can make the biggest difference: resume writing. The author explains that “Over 90% of large companies use applicant tracking systems that scan your resume and determine if you are a fit for the role or not by looking for keywords.” She offers advice for using keywords successfully.

A few more tips about resumes are offered in the Harvard Extension newsletter, and monster.com weighs in with an article titled “The 10 worst resume mistakes to avoid.”

BOOKS ABOUT MENTORING

Five books about Mentoring also have been added to the AWESOME recommended reading list.