CAMAWiSE - Peer Mentoring workshop, 21/2/2012

I recently attended a Peer Mentoring evening organised by CAMAWiSE (Cambridge Association for Women in Science and Engineering). The event was followed by the group’s AGM, a clever idea to combine the two to get the most out of the evening and encourage people along. Not that I think they needed much encouragement – this was my second meeting since joining the group, and I have found the members and attendees to be a sociable, likeable and enthusiastic group of women of all ages. 

The group organised something similar last year, and the feedback had been very positive, so they decided to try the format again this year. The idea is that in a group of peers, everyone mentors each other; in our work, we all gain different experiences and in a group of committed and intelligent people there will be useful experiences relating to your current situation. Support can be through exchanging practical tips, defining and clarifying the topic, getting other people’s perspectives and hearing people’s experiences of similar situations.

After agreeing some “rules”, we brainstormed some topics for discussion. We ended up with five groups taking the following topics:

• Transitions (eg from research to other types of job)
• Building confidence
• New companies
• Returning to work/finding work
• Negotiating promotion/salary rise

I was in the last of these groups, comprising five participants with widely varying backgrounds and stories to tell. We started by introducing ourselves and our reasons for picking this topic. Although we were experiencing different problems, we could still identify some common ground, and we had some interesting discussions covering subjects such as self-confidence, appraisals and student reviews.
 
All too soon time was called, and our facilitator went around the room to gather feedback from each group on how they’d got on. There had obviously been some stimulating conversations, which will hopefully be continued in other forums. Our group plans to meet up in a couple of months so we can report back to each other on our progress. In addition, two Linked-In groups have been set up to continue the discussions started by two of the groups.

I found this a very useful event. It's always interesting and valuable to hear other people's experiences; quite often it puts into perspective what you see as your own "problems".

The AGM followed, and the meeting was wrapped up in a very positive atmosphere. Peer mentoring is a valuable tool,  give it a go if you get the chance! I can also highly recommend the group, if you are thinking of joining -  it’s dynamic, supportive and sociable.

Welcome to my blog!

I'm an experienced Information Professional based in Cambridge, where I've worked for a high-tech R&D company for nearly 12 years. I'm part of the Intellectual Property team, and my main responsibilities lie in conducting searches to support members of the team, as well as our many research scientists and engineers. I also manage our e-journal subscriptions, and provide document delivery and other services. 

Sometime last year I came to realise that I'd let my career drift somewhat, and decided it was time to take charge of matters. At the same time, organisational changes meant I had a new manager; both he and his manager have been encouraging me to move out of my comfort zone and take on new responsibilities.

In November 2011 my company sent me on an "Introduction to NLP" course, which was incredibly interesting, and gave me an invaluable push in the right direction (thankyou Sue Knight!!). Sue's book, "NLP at Work", has been open on my dining room table ever since, and I continually go back to it to extract the next nugget. I can heartily recommend it!  I foresee NLP being the subject of future blogposts.

I've also started to take an interest in Knowledge Management, and see it as a key part of my developing role at work. I'm planning to post about my KM journey, and would be very interested to hear from others about their experiences.

Towards the end of 2011 I started actively looking for networking and development opportunities, and I will be continuing to do so in 2012. Last year I went to two LIKE (London Information and Knowledge Exchange) events, and so far this year I've joined CAMAWiSE (Cambridge Association of Women in Science and Engineering) and attended two of their events. There are so many events around which I would love to go to, unfortunately you just can't do them all! So it's a case of picking out those which sound the most interesting and valuable.

I've been planning to blog for some time now - partly encouraged by the "23 things for CPD" movement. I didn't actually register for CPD23 but I did find the posts very useful and still refer back to them frequently. So I will aim to use this blog, among other things, as a reflective tool, as well as sharing my thoughts with you all out there! I'd love to hear from you if you have comments to make.