When you apply for a job, the hiring manager may only look at your resume for 10 seconds or less. This makes sense when you consider that they have dozens or hundreds of applications to sift through. They want to see your most relevant qualifications, clearly and quickly.
The good news? Your experience as a mentor is going to be relevant to many jobs you might apply for, so let’s talk about how to make sure it stands out!
Here are some skills that a history of mentoring could demonstrate (with examples of what this could look like in practice:
| Professional Communication | Communicating electronically and in-person with your mentees in an appropriate and consistent way–lets employers know you’re ready to be part of a team of colleagues |
| Coaching | Helping mentees set and achieve goals–means that you’re ready to support colleagues, clients, and/or people you supervise in a work context |
| Problem-Solving | Helping your mentee deal with issues they’ve encountered and overcome obstacles – creativity and persistence when faced with an obstacle is valuable in almost every work role |
| Conflict Resolution | Dealing with any friction that comes up with your mentee; and/or providing guidance to your mentee in navigating conflicts they had with others–an employer will see this as highly valuable for navigating tricky workplace issues |
| Research | Finding appropriate resources for your mentee–many jobs require research of one kind or another, and the ability to find resources both internally and externally to the company will serve you well |
| Commitment to a Long-Term Role | Being a mentee over a long-term, multi-month commitment, as opposed to shorter-term volunteer work that might only take a day or a week to complete–most employers will want someone who can stick to a commitment and won’t flake out on them |
| Interpersonal Relationships | Working through any differences or miscommunications between yourself and your mentee–so-called “soft skills”, such as getting along well with people from different backgrounds, are extremely valuable in every workplace |
| Desire to Serve/Give Back | Volunteering your time to help your mentee because you care about helping those within your community and want to give others a leg up–many employers will appreciate this quality, especially those with a community focus or goal of corporate responsibility |
| Investment in Developing Skills in Others | Helping your mentee to develop, and being able to see their setbacks and progress over time–employers will look for someone who is a team player and can support their colleagues and/or those whom they supervise |
Think about which of these skills apply to you—along with others you’d add to the list!). Those are the skills you want to highlight when they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for.
When writing your resume, it can be hard to know how to phrase things, and building a good resume is definitely a skill that takes practice!
To help you, we’ve developed a few examples that show how a person might list their mentor experience on a resume. Please, for your own sake, do NOT copy these examples word-for-word. It’s dishonest, and if an organization you’re applying uses resume analysis software, it could show up as plagiarism.
EXPERIENCE
Peer Mentor, University of Featherstoneville (2022-2023)
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, University of Featherstoneville (2023)
Academics: 3.8 GPA; Psychology Undergraduate Innovation Award (2022); Dean’s list
Other Accomplishments: Peer mentor in Featherstoneville First Year Experience program, mentoring three incoming freshmen and employing communication, leadership, and research skills to help them overcome challenges and find success in the college environment
If you liked this blog and are interested in learning other mentor best practices, check out these blogs, too!