Enrollment to be a Mentor for the upcoming Mentor Match session is now open through October, 5 2025.
What is INFORMS Mentor Match?
Mentor Match is an online directory intended to help INFORMS members find social support in developing their careers. It is free to enroll, and we are currently looking for new mentors to meet the growing demand from mentees. See our list of FAQs for more details.
As an experienced professional, we know your valuable past career experience can help the rising generation of O.R. and Analytics professionals. Mentees in our program include students, young professionals, and members transitioning careers. Sometimes they're looking for guidance in making a key career decision, and sometimes they're looking for more general advice pertaining to a certain area of work, research, or professional life.
We encourage mentees to take ownership of the mentoring relationship, so the expectation is that they would search the directory and reach out to mentors with whom they'd like to meet. We also advise them to define objectives for the mentoring relationship, and to communicate clearly about what kind of help they are asking for. By enrolling as a mentor, you are simply putting your profile into the search pool and agreeing to answer any requests for mentorship. Staff sometimes help facilitate the connections, so it's possible you'd be contacted by me or a colleague, if not the mentee him/herself.
Once matched, most mentors and mentees agree to meet virtually, but if you connect with someone in your area, they could request an in-person meeting. Matches are expected to meet for at least one hour per month.
Mentoring is a wonderful way to give back to your professional community and can be mutually rewarding!
I hope you'll consider enrolling as a mentor. If you're interested, please comment on this discussion thread. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have!
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Garrett Johnston
Membership Engagement Coordinator
gjohnston@informs.org------------------------------