By Rachel Mackay, Career Transition Coach at The AXIS Network

Mentoring is important at whatever stage you’re at in your career. No one has all the answers. Which is actually a good thing. If we knew it all, it could be really dull!

Working with a mentor, who has the experience or has developed the skills you’re seeking can help move you forward. They can help you see and think about things differently. That diversity of thinking can be a game changer.

Rachel and Beth shared their experience of being mentored and acting as a mentor. This includes internal company mentoring schemes as well as external programs, like the AXIS Network’s mentoring scheme.

Effective mentoring strategies

Mentoring partnerships can be formal, informal and a mixture of both. That means that we can be agile and adapt as needed.

A great mentor will listen deeply to what is being sad and not said. And not be distracted by going immediately into problem solving mode before the mentee has finished!

A common pitfall in mentoring is that the mentor may try and “fix” the mentee, rather than give some suggestions about how to move the situation forward. No-one needs fixing. Great mentoring is about sharing experience and what has worked or not worked for the mentor previously.

The mentoring relationship should also be led by the mentee. Sometimes we can underestimate how much time is needed to work on our goals/intentions. Being really clear about what those goals/intentions are is important – this may develop overtime if the mentee is not completely sure at the beginning. Talking it through with the mentor should help clarify things.

We also discussed the benefits of non-technical people mentoring engineers, which again helps to shift perceptions and see things differently. We’ve seen reverse mentoring be very successful, where someone earlier in their career mentors someone at a later stage.

Beth and Rachel shared how as a mentor, they also learned from our mentees. Yes, they want to pay forward their experience from the great mentors they have had, and also they want to keep learning themselves.

The AXIS Network’s Mentoring program

The AXIS Network’s mentoring program, which is a volunteer led, open to all, was also discussed. The 6-month program for 2025 is in progress and will next be opened up to candidates in 2026. In the mean-time we’ll be running a speed mentoring event in Q4 2025. It’s under development and is likely to be where we have tables of mentees asking questions to a mentor, before moving onto

the next mentor. That way mentees will learn and develop their career, from multiple mentors in a short space of time. Watch out for more information about this.

Key takeaways

1. Having a mentor want to be there increases the success of the relationship.
2. The mentoring relationship can be formal, informal or a mixture of both. It depends on what the mentee needs. A bit of informality will help the relationship remain agile.
3. Mentoring works really well when the mentee takes the lead for their career development.
4. No-one knows everything. It’s a strength to ask for help at whatever stage you are in your career.

The AXIS Network’s mentoring program will kick off in 2026. In the meantime, a speed mentoring event in Q4 is under development.