Article from the Daily Telegraph, 21 Benefits of having a mentor
Monthly Archives: January 2017
Lboro Connect – platform for connecting with Loughborough Alumni to further your career
Lboro connect is an online community where Loughborough Students and Alumni can build knowledge and share experiences through networking and mentoring.
Students and alumni can sign up to mentor or be mentored, build their profile and search for other members who can help answer questions or provide career or sector insights.
Careers Network and the Alumni Office will encourage students and alumni to set up profiles and connect with one another. Students can use their LU student login, or set-up using their LinkedIn or Facebook accounts – making registration and profile updates simple.
As well as the mentoring benefits, students and alumni can form peer or special interest groups (as on LinkedIn). The platform also provides a really positive and easy way for alumni to re-engage, stay in touch and continue to contribute to the University, which most are very keen to do.
Exclusive to Loughborough students and alumni, Lboro Connect is a current and vibrant community offering flexible ways for users to offer and browse opportunities such as mentoring, work shadowing, and insight days. It is an easy way to allow students to begin building their professional networks and for alumni to stay in touch and give something back to the university after graduation, keeping the Loughborough family together.
Why join Lboro Connect?
Lboro Connect is an online community designed to develop networks and mentoring relationships between our alumni and between alumni and students. Students and alumni are free to connect to anyone in the community as long as they treat them with respect and consideration. Our goal is to enable a generous and supportive community.
Benefits of Lboro Connect
Lboro Connect is special because it brings together Loughborough University alumni and students, a remarkable group of talented, inspiring and accomplished individuals. You can interact with the community in any way you wish. Sign up to mentor or be mentored, build your profile and search for other members who can help answer questions or provide insights you need. Simply build a profile and enjoy observing the relationships and connections that grow within the community!
Build your network
The great thing about Lboro Connect is that everyone will be starting from the beginning, so you are all in the same position. Use this new slate to communicate with others as much as possible.
Groups
- Start by joining groups related to your interests
- Post questions and observations to strike up a conversation
- Comment on other members’ posts to start building a rapport
- Start following members within the group and continue the conversation!
People
- Under “people”, start filtering through those with similar interests and experience as you, or search for those with the experience and skills you wish to have
- Follow those you have filtered and follow up with a message explaining why you have done so. By following them, this will allow you to read a “digest” of their activity and get to know them
On your home screen, recent posts will appear from people you follow. Get involved by commenting on these posts to share your knowledge and views.
For further information on networking outside of Lboro Connect, please see our Networking for career planning and job search PDF:
Joining Groups
Under “groups” you will see different group types to click into and join. Search through those which may be of interest to you and click “join” if you wish to do so.
Some groups may be private, for which you will need approval from the group administrator to join, but with most you should be able to join straight away.
Once you have joined, you can post updates, comment on posts and upload documents. You can also decide whether you would like to receive email notifications from the group, and how often you want to receive them.
If there is a group that you would like to be a part of, but doesn’t exist, pending approval from an administrator, you can just create your own group by clicking on the plus (+) next to the title.
With groups you have the option to find out more about a variety of causes around and outside of the university, and you are given the opportunity to network with those you may not normally be able to connect with. We expect this function to continue to grow, so be sure to keep checking back so you don’t miss out on any opportunities!
For more information about Lboro Connect, please click here.
Interested in studying or working in a different country?
If you are interested in working or studying in a different country the Careers Network website has a variety of information resources, which can be found by clicking here. Going Global contains jobs, internships which you can search for most countries in the workd, as well as details of recruitment agencies and in-country jobsites.
The Prospects website also has resources about studying abroad, which can be accessed by clicking here.
Sheffield University also hosts ‘My International Career’ which is a collection of careers and recruitment resources and websites across the globe.
Loughborough University is part of the Erasmus scheme, a European Union exchange programme which provides students with the opportunity to study abroad at other European Universities as part of their course. The University also has a limited number of student exchange places with other international institutional partners in Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA. Have a look at the Erasmus and International Exchanges pages for further information.
Got a careers-related question?
If you have a careers-related question, including those you may feel embarrassed to ask, there is a variety of help available. For department specific questions, you can arrange an appointment with Careers staff for that school – details can be found through visiting:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/careers/students-and-graduates/research-your-career/schools/
If you have a careers query related to being an international student, you can always visit the Careers Help Point drop in at the Bridgeman Building during term-time 9.30am-4.30pm.
If you specifically want to ask Christian Jameson-Warren a question, he is on Careers Help Point at the following dates and times:
12/01/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
23/01/2017 9.30am – 1.00pm
24/01/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
31/01/2017 9.30am – 1.00pm
10/02/2017 9.30am – 1.00pm
09/02/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
14/02/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
20/02/2017 9.30am – 1.00pm
22/02/2017 9.30am – 1.00pm
01/03/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
07/03/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
23/03/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm
28/03/2017 1.00pm – 4.30pm