How can IIT K alumni mentor its students?

-Mentoring helps both the mentee and the mentor recognise their abilities and limitations, thus highlighting areas for future development.

-It helps prompt thought about career development and come to a realistic conclusion about their career potential.
      
-It can help increase the motivation of both the mentee and the mentor. The mentee gains a new direction or perspective while the mentor feels a sense of achievement when their mentee succeeds.
    
-It will develop communication skills. As well as the obvious listening/questioning skills, you will gain experience of talking to a younger or older colleague. This could help you interact better with your own immediate colleagues at work or university.
    
You will be grooming future allies. Within the same company this could help with internal promotion prospects for both the mentee - gaining a senior supporter, and for the mentor - being seen as someone able to communicate with staff at any level and with an interest in developing future leaders within the company.

In addition the mentor or mentee may find themselves in a position where they are looking for a career change or new position. By developing contacts in other companies you can find out early if there is a vacancy that would suit you.

Whenever mentoring programmes happen, the relation of a mentor & a mentee will be of not that good, so it would be great to create a culture of mentorship within the IIT K community by connecting students to alumni in long-term, one-on-one mentoring relationships for career guidance, advice, and advocacy. 

We all know that we have such programme but is it really effective? you guys know better than me.

1. Through the extensive experience of alumni, the program helps students to develop a deeper understanding of their career goals and gain insights into the professional world in general.

2. Through interactions and relationship with students the mentorship program aims to provide alumni with a personal and active way to reconnect with the IITKians community.

Both the mentor and the person being mentored need to be open and honest, yet respect the other. A mentor who withholds important information or comments does not contribute to the other person's success.

However, such comments should be delivered with tact and courtesy--and (even if somewhat hurtful) received with an open mind.

A mentor should encourage its mentees to explore and take responsibility of their actions and decisions. He should not resort to prescriptive and parenting as it will increase dependency but should rather help them explore alternatives that are possible and help them to look at pros & cons of each and let the mentee decide.

This will help expand the horizon of the mentee and whatever be the outcome the mentee shall take onus of the result as it is his own decision. Usually it is easy for a mentor to slip into a parenting role which inhibits risk takinga encouraging dependnecy.