Mentoring Program

The program was initiated in fall of 2008 and sponsored by PMI OVOC. The mission of the Program is to provide interested members with mentoring support that materially helps the member on his/her journey to becoming a very effective project management practitioner. Mentoring is the act of a more experienced person, the Mentor, providing guidance, wisdom, knowledge, and support in a manner in which a Protégé can receive and benefit from it.

The program is available to anyone who is a member of the PMI OVOC chapter and there are no additional fees in order to register in the program. Note that anyone accepted into the Mentoring Program must attend this Kick Off session. There are two (2) sessions during the year usually in the spring and in the fall.  Each session runs about 6 months long.

If you are not a LinkedIn member, please register a profile first at www.linkedin.com. For LinkedIn members go directly to http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mentorship-4418638/about. Then press on 'Join This Group'. You will get an acceptance template once a request is received.

The mentoring program runs as a process in which the Mentor is responsible for supporting the professional development of the Protégé outside the normal manager/subordinate relationship.

All participants in the program must join the LinkedIn mentorship group. Mentors get to post background relevant information and experience using a provided template to fill in what's missing from their LinkedIn profile. Protégés can join the LinkedIn group and contact any potential mentor candidate directly to start assessing a proper match. Once an initial agreement is established, you will get to confirm your match during the Kick-off session.

At the Kick-Off session, we will cover expectations of both the Protégé and Mentor role, and will share information about some of the approaches that other PMI-OVOC pairs have taken. You will not be expected to develop a course curriculum!

Once a match is confirmed during the Kick-Off session meeting, meetings are arranged over the next few months to exchange knowledge and experience. Mentors will be drawing on their own experiences to share stories and advice along with pointers to other resources that they think would be helpful to your Protégé.

From Protégé perspective:

• Accelerate learning curve
• Solve concrete problems
• Broaden network
• Benefit from another person's vision, experience, learning
• Get help focusing on career plans and career moves
• Experience a non-threatening climate to test one's ideas, skills and viewpoints
• Obtain PDUs to maintain PMP certification (See Table below)

From Mentor perspective:

• The ability to positively influence the next generation leaders
• Challenge
• Improve mentoring, motivation and counselling skills
• Learn about new contexts and new ways of thinking
• Broaden network
• Obtain PDUs to maintain PMP certification (See Table below)