Qualifications of Mentors

Mentors will act as neutral sounding boards and offer their mentees advice on career topics. We seek mentors who are authentic, empathetic, creative, and honest, and who can offer guidance on achieving goals, developing soft skills, and exploring new projects, certifications or training to help mentees get ahead.

Mentors must be current ISACA members. New members gain access to the platform within approximately 24 hours.

Responsibilities of Mentors

• Review mentee connection requests and accept or decline within 7 days. Please provide all mentees with a response, even if you must decline, to maintain a supportive and collaborative program culture. After 7 days, the request closes automatically to enable the mentee to request a different mentor. 
• Consider connection requests carefully: Review mentee profiles, ask follow-up questions, and ensure you are the right mentor to support their specific goal.
• Respond to communication from your mentee in a timely manner, generally within two days of receipt. Maintain open, honest lines of communication.
• Set aside time for the mentorship process and honor all appointments. Plan to meet with your mentee regularly, in most cases, at least once a month. Consider time zones and scheduling flexibility before accepting the match. 
• Maintain confidentiality and discretion in conversations with mentees to establish trust, while offering advice and guidance for growth.
• Foster creativity and independence. Help build confidence, offer encouragement when necessary, and do not encourage your mentee to be totally dependent on you.
• Identify and suggest exercises and opportunities for your mentee to practice new skills, expand their network, and stretch their capabilities.
• Provide opportunities for the mentee to talk about concerns and ask questions. Give honest and timely feedback. 
• Above all, be an active listener. Do not try to give advice about everything, or provide your personal history, successes, failures, etc. unless they are constructive contributions. 
• Never criticize; diplomatically offer constructive guidance.
• Read all program training material suggested via email and in the mentorship connection plan.

Frequently asked questions

• What am I expected to do as a mentor? Mentors are expected to provide their mentee with a few hours of support and interaction per month. Most of this interaction will take place via email and other web-related tools, like the instant messaging and native video meeting tools in the platform. If you and your mentee are in the same location, you may even choose to meet in-person, as appropriate.
  
  Mentors should work with their mentee to solidify a mentorship goal to work toward, and the kind of support that will be most useful—specific feedback related to finding jobs, general career advice, development of leadership skills, improving communication, information on higher studies, technical information, personal encouragement, and so on. 
• How long will the commitment be? ISACA's mentorship connection plan is designed to be six months long, and mentors are asked to commit initially to this timeframe. However, this timeline is flexible and up to the discretion of the mentor and mentee if the goal is completed early or more time is needed. 
• Are there any potential risks to me or my company? No. It is not appropriate for mentors to engage in any business transactions with their mentees; instead, the mentorship should only involve the flow of general information and advice.
• What should I do if my mentorship is not going well? Not every match will be the right fit, and a mentorship is an investment of your time and energy. If things are not working out or you discover your skill set does not align with mentee's goals, you are encouraged to address this early on. It is likely that your mentee is feeling similarly, and they may rely on you to initiate a respectful and professional conversation about offboarding early. It is important to ISACA to empower all participants to have a worthwhile experience, and sometimes that means concluding one match and finding a more effective connection. 
• Can I pause my involvement in the program? Yes, unmatched mentors can set their status as unavailable if they wish to stop receiving connection requests for a period of time. 
• How many mentees can I match with? It is suggested that mentors focus on one match at a time. As soon as a match is over, the mentor will be available to receive new mentee connection requests. During the time they are connected with a mentee, mentors will not be able to receive new connection requests.
• Can I be a mentor and a mentee? Yes! Participants can be in two matches at once if they hold dual roles as a mentor and mentee. 
• How can I identify mentees who are ISACA Foundation scholarship recipients? Recipients of an academic scholarship through the ISACA Foundation have been instructed to add this designation to the 'About Me' section of their profile.