Who Should Participate in Mentorship?
The ISACA Mentorship Program is available to current ISACA members of all career levels and experiences. (Not a member yet? Join today and gain access in approximately 24 hours!)
Participate as a mentee to help launch your career, stay up to date on emerging trends and technology, receive advice on attaining an aspirational role, and enhance your knowledge and insights through guidance from a relevant, specially selected mentor. Whatever your career goal is, the ISACA Mentorship Program has a mentor to help. Learn more about being an ISACA mentee.
Mentors of various levels of experience are highly encouraged and welcome. An effective mentor will offer actionable and helpful advice and share an understanding of the mentee’s challenges. You do not need to be a top executive to demonstrate leadership and give back to ISACA's digital trust professional community. Learn more about being an ISACA mentor.
What Can I Accomplish Through Mentorship?
Participants are encouraged to focus on building durable skills, outside of technical capabilities, that enable career growth. When completing your profile, you will be asked to identify which leadership competencies you most closely align with or want to develop; a parameter used to suggest system matches.
Both the mentee and mentor can experience learning, growth, development, and change during their partnership. While mentees will be focused on accomplishing one or two aspirational career goals, mentors will exercise their skills in management, communication, and emotional intelligence, or even discover new ideas and approaches from their mentee. Often, the learning goes both ways.
Participants can also hold dual roles, meaning they are in the program as a mentor and a mentee, working with a partner in both capacities.
Please note, the mentorship program is not intended to be used for tutoring to earn certification(s), although credentialing may be a step along the mentee's journey to achieve their goals.
How Does the Program Work?
ISACA's Mentorship Program is flexible enough to meet each connection's unique needs, while providing some guidance and structure to help achieve success. Mentorship connections begin with a six-month initial commitment. The system will guide the mentorship connection through a series of action items over the duration of the match, such as completing a goal setting worksheet, scheduling regular meetings, and completing evaluations. ISACA also will share resources and reminders along the journey, and the mentorship platform is complete with tools to help facilitate your work like video meeting capabilities and a chat feature.
How are Matches Made?
Members select whether they want to publish a comprehensive Mentee or Mentor profile to let others know more about them and their experience levels. Mentees are empowered to search the directory for a mentor whose competencies, experience, personality, and location meet their needs. Members with published Mentor profiles may receive connection requests anytime. They are expected to review connection requests carefully and accept only those they feel they have the experience and insight to support. The system will suggest pairings with participants who have complementary qualities. The system also has a directory with advanced search options to find people with specific attributes. Mentees should have an understanding of what they would like to accomplish through mentorship and can send a connection request to a mentor who they feel will be a good fit based on their goals. Visit the Mentee Details page to learn more and access goal setting resources.
How Do I Earn CPE?
Mentors and mentees are both eligible to earn up to 10 continuing professional education (CPE) hours annually through their involvement with ISACA's Mentorship Program. A minimum amount of activity must be recorded in the mentorship platform to consider this a CPE-qualifying activity, and CPE is earned based on time spent participating. Mentors and mentees are also required to participate in three evaluations throughout the duration of the match.
Is Group Mentorship Available?
Mentors and mentees, regardless of whether they are in an active 1:1 connection, can participate in the Professional Development Forum on Engage. In this group, all participants can learn from one another by discussing career development-related topics and offering advice and support. A discussion board and library will provide additional resources to help you learn and provide support to others.