Mentoring an early career researcher: insider perspectives from the mentee and mentor

Mentorship programs are implemented within academia to build staff capacity and to enhance the human capital of the organization. Previous studies have centred on identifying the benefits of mentoring from the perspective of the mentee, while the role of the mentor has been overlooked, and limited research has been conducted to investigate the perspectives and experiences of both the mentor and mentee. This article reports on a mentor and mentee’s catalyst for joining a formal mentoring program within their university, their expectations, needs and priorities, and how the mentoring relationship was sustained. A reflective case study and autoethnographic approach was used to undertake this study. The results revealed that both the mentor and mentee had vastly different catalysts for joining the mentoring program, shared expectations and priorities regarding career progression, and sustained the relationship due to both subjective outcomes such as enhanced self-belief and objective outcomes including increased publication outputs. This paper invites academics to consider their perspectives on mentoring and to recognise the value of engaging in a university facilitated mentoring program for both the mentor and the mentee.