SURVEY CONCLUSIONS: Mentor and Mentee Compared

Mentoring for Translators and Interpreters

SURVEY RESULTS - Conclusions

PART III: MENTOR AND MENTEE COMPARED – Joint analysis of Mentor’s and Mentee’s trends

Both the Mentors’ and the Mentees’ results point very clearly at a lack of mentoring in our industry and the need to raise awareness about the benefits of mentoring, especially among the Freelancers of the Translator’s and Interpreter’s Community. A standardized, adaptable framework providing the building blocks to build up customized Mentor-Mentee relationships could be a meaningful tool in familiarizing everyone with the issues involved in Mentoring, considering the high numbers of Survey participants who have expressed they want to be part of a controlled mentoring program and have a mentoring standard to follow.

The need to raise awareness about the value of mentoring in our Community is also shown by the impressive number of mentors stating they would act as a mentor if asked to do so, as well as the significant number of mentees stating they have never thought about being a mentee so far. Not surprisingly, Survey results corroborate that mentees do not usually approach Senior Freelancers to help them with their career. Maybe more surprisingly, helping another freelancer’s career constitutes a big motivation for taking on a mentoring role.

Both Mentor and Mentee view mentoring relationships as an opportunity for building future partnerships, as well as improving/keeping their skills updated. While mentees fear the mentor might lack their professional outlook and/or up-to-date skills, or might treat them with condescension, mentors mostly fear mentoring somebody who does not match their quality criteria. Both seem to have a strong interest in receiving support from their peers while acting as a mentor or mentee, as well as in establishing a probation period. In addition, an important number of mentors as well as mentees would like to have the option to choose a mentor/mentee from a pool of candidates.

There seems to be a need to develop mentoring models that take into account already existing working schedules, time and financial restraints (lack of payment) primarily of mentors, but also of mentees. More mentoring hours might be offered and taken up in our industry if our Community developed new coaching models to facilitate customized, “out of the box”, peer-to-peer mentoring in the Freelance Community, given that lack of time is apparently a hindrance either to providing more mentoring hours or to providing any at all.

It seems to be that potential mentors do not necessarily or exclusively seek financial compensation for their efforts, but wish for recognition or some other kind of benefit in a non-monetary form, a detail that should be taken into account in the setting up and practical implementation of this Standard.

Most mentors and mentees are willing to be mentored remotely, through online-meetings and email-exchange.

PART IV: Proposals to raise awareness and increase adequate, customized mentoring in our community >

 
(< Back to PART II: MENTEE – Trends from the Mentee’s perspective)