What Are The Benefits Of Online Mentoring?

Online mentoring really came into its own in the COVID-19 pandemic. With traditional workplace mentoring relationships unable to continue in person, networking events cancelled and furlough leaving many of us reassessing career plans, remote mentoring started to take off.

Unlike 10pm curfews, the Rule of Six and debates about whether scotch eggs are a meal in themselves (sometimes you forget what a trip lockdown was), online mentoring has stuck around – and we’re glad! There are so many benefits to remote mentoring and it’s one of the few good things that came out of the pandemic.

What Is Remote Mentoring?

Remote mentoring is any mentor-mentee relationship that takes place without an in-person meeting. Typically, this will be an online mentoring partnership, but some people mentor others over the phone.

The beauty of remote mentoring is that it allows you to meet with people all over the country (and even the world), without the need to travel. The Career Navig8r online mentoring platform makes it easy to communicate across borders and timezones, so you can build a successful mentoring relationship without barriers.

7 Benefits of Online Mentoring

There are so many benefits for online mentors, including the chance to top up your income from home and the opportunity to support other people with their career alongside your other commitments. With remote mentoring, there’s no travel time, no need to dress too formally and no expectations to stay for a drink out of courtesy once your meeting has finished – it can slot seamlessly into your day.

Here’s more about the key benefits of online mentoring:

1. Flexibility

Remote mentoring is the most flexible type of mentoring. You can fit it around your job, in evenings or even during your lunch break, while you’re on maternity leave or parental leave, when you’re on a sabbatical or when you’re on a career break.

Our online mentoring platform lets you choose your own hours, so if you’ve only got time to mentor on a Saturday morning or every other Tuesday after 7pm, you can be up front about that from the start and still reap all the benefits of remote mentoring.

2. Top Up Your Income

Becoming an online mentor allows you to top up your income while you’re working another job or even during a career break. Lots of people do a bit of online mentoring when they’re semi-retired or even fully retired to keep their income topped up when they’re no longer earning a full salary. Read more about mentoring after retirement.

3. Expand Your Network

Remote mentoring allows you to expand your network without having to attend in-person networking events. If you don’t live close to these events, becoming an online mentor is a great way to meet other people in your industry and build new connections. If you want to get to know people on the same level as you, peer mentoring could be ideal for you.

4. Balance Your Commitments

The flexibility to choose the days and times you’re available for online mentoring means it can easily fit easily in around your other commitments, whether that’s your current job, being a parent, travelling, being a carer or something else.

Virtual mentoring can give you a better hold on your work-life balance – especially if you choose to do it as a part-time (or even full-time!) job. With the ability to choose your own hours and set boundaries around your availability, online mentoring could be the job that finally helps you achieve that coveted balance.

5. Improve Your Own Skills

When you become an online mentor, you’ll have a regular opportunity to exercise your communication and leadership skills including active listening and the ability to deliver constructive feedback. Improving these skills can boost your confidence and potentially open up new doors in your own future.

6. Give Something Back

Remote mentoring is a fantastic opportunity to give something back to your sector. Every mentor has their own unique skill set and professional journey to share, so tell your imposter syndrome to pipe down and pass on your valuable knowledge and experience to others. Online mentoring can feel incredibly rewarding.

How to Mentor Online Successfully

Online mentoring requires you to present yourself and communicate differently to how you would with in-person mentoring. There are so many little nuances that we pick up during face-to-face interactions that you’ll need to work harder on when communicating virtually with your mentee but with a bit of practice, you’ll soon have it nailed. Check out our tips on how to mentor online successfully:

• Dress the part – one of the many great things about mentoring remotely is that you don’t need to dress business smart to meet your mentee. But we do recommend dressing presentably to put you in the right mindset and to give your mentee a good first impression. Dress in a way that reflects your professional standing (we won’t tell anyone if you’re wearing your PJ bottoms out of view of the screen 😉)
• Watch your body language – with remote mentoring, you need to be more mindful of your body language. Bear in mind that your mentee can only see your top half, so keep your arms unfolded and make sure you’re displaying open body language as much as possible
• Eye contact – think about where your eyes are focusing during online mentoring sessions. It can be tempting to check out your own ‘reflection’ on the screen or to look at the centre of your screen where your mentee’s face is, but the best approach is to look directly into your camera as much as possible. This’ll make it look like you’re looking right at your mentee at their side, building trust and helping them feel more comfortable
• Remove distractions – you might want to leave your phone in another room or switch it to flight mode so you aren’t distracted by any calls or notifications during your remote mentoring sessions. Don’t have a million tabs open either – as you’ll be mentoring from your computer, these could be a distraction. Remember that your mentee is paying for your time and full attention
• Outline next steps – towards the end of your online mentoring sessions, take the time to briefly recap what you’ve discussed and outline next steps. Leave your mentee with a few actions to work on before your next meeting to help keep them focused and on track with their goals
• Write up your notes – it’s a good idea to spend a few minutes writing or typing up your notes from the session too, especially if you work with multiple mentees. Life happens between the end of one remote mentoring session and the start of another, so keep a record of where your mentee is up to and the topics you discussed to help you pick up from where you left off

How to Use the Career Navig8r Online Mentoring Platform

Love the idea of becoming an online mentor? Create a profile on our easy-to-use online mentoring platform, fill out your details, list your skills and areas of expertise, and set your hourly rate. Mentees will then be able to browse your Career Navig8r profile to message you and potentially set up a mentoring partnership.

All the payments are managed via our platform and we have our own remote mentoring video conferencing tech for you to use, so you don’t need to worry about the likes of Zoom or Skype. Read more about how it works.

Sign up and become an online mentor today.