Personal Journey Towards a Fulfilling Career Defining (in great detail and in writing!!) my personalized, values-based vision of success for my career as a tenure-track faculty member If you don’t have a clear personal career vision, others are happy (and frequently “chomping at the bit”) to offer you one – or substitute theirs for yours A values-based vision allows you to make values-based decisions which can simplify when/why the answer is yes vs. no Finding supporters that listened to, affirmed, and engaged in propelling me towards success that aligned with my personal career goals, while helping me to understand institutional context Find supporters and advocates where they are, which means you’ll have to look in AND out of your home domain (dept. & institution)

Personal Journey Towards a Fulfilling Career Being clear about the distinct between destinations and milestones Don’t let the pursuit of & focus on a milestone become THE goal. It’s one step along a longer journey towards the DESTINATION. Craft a career plan & strategic roadmap which attracts/draws the rewarding of tenure, rather than focusing on tenure as THE goal. Focusing on tenure (a milestone of a successful career) as THE goal can result in bending and morphing of your goals such that you successfully GET tenure but are miserable. Although there are real practicalities in having a secured position, fight, strive & struggle to be secured in pursuing directions you respect. Be tenured for a cause, a platform, to secure the unique contributions that your unique intellect, experiences & passions bring to academia. From @BerondaM

Beronda L. Montgomery, Ph.D. Mapping and Traversing a Personal Mentoring Roadmap Towards Career Success Beronda L. Montgomery, Ph.D. Michigan State University November 30, 2016

What is mentoring? What is not?

Advising vs. Mentoring Advisors offer advice that can benefit any individual taking your path Based on provision of factual info about particular activities that must occur to complete a course of action More likely to be a “one-way” transfer of information Mentors offer advice based on a deep understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, your personal aspirations, your values, and your self-defined career goals Baker & Griffin, 2010; Kirchmeyer, 2005; Long et al., 2013; Montgomery et al, 2014; Ramirez, 2012

Mentor vs. mentors Mentoring “Network Shuffle”* for comprehensive mentoring Identification of multiple individuals with different, yet hopefully complementary, skills and/or resources to fulfill different mentoring functions, roles, needs Provision of political guidance and strategies Can be entirely separate for disciplinary or subject matter expertise Need for mentors to understand your personal commitments/goals Long et al., 2013; Montgomery, forthcoming; *Zambrana et al., 2014

Mentoring for Personal Career Goals Mentoring can often be provided in ‘top-down’ mode that supports individuals in pursuit of institutionally-defined goals or recognized milestones related to contextual success Shifting the focus of mentoring to an individually-center perspective allows the individual’s personalized career vision to drive mentoring, in the context of a particular institution Focus is then on personalized vision of career success that can be supported in and contribute to an institutional context Montgomery, forthcoming

What are your current mentoring needs? How will you meet your needs?

Mentoring Roadmap Moving ahead Maintenance Establishment Self-reflection Montgomery, forthcoming

Mentoring Roadmap Montgomery, forthcoming

How are we mapping mentoring roadmaps that support our personal career visions? How are we supporting others to define personalized career aspirations and map the roadmaps/networks needed to attain these?

Thank You! Beronda L. Montgomery montg133@msu.edu @BerondaM