Career Design Lab

Topics for meetings

Mentoring is primarily based on the actor's own needs. The basic themes of the discussions support the career design of the actor and vary from identifying strengths and weighing alternatives to developing skills.
Two students on Aalto University campus
Photo:Aleksi Poutanen.

Ideas for discussion topics

Career design 

  • Identifying strengths
  • Clarification of values
  • Ideation of different career paths
  • Balancing professional and other identities
  • Impact of working career
  • Lifelong and lifewide learning
  • Meaningful career and work

Themes related to studies

  • Course choices
  • Completing studies
  • Thesis topics

Working life skills

  • Skills and capabilities needed for working life
  • Management skills and management development
  • Communication in workplaces
  • Problematic situations in working life and how to tackle them
  • Dealing with stress
  • Learning from failure
  • Meeting different people in the work community
  • Teamwork and the necessary skills
  • Supervisor-subordinate relationship, supervisor skills, subordinate skills
  • Adaptation to the work community
  • Integration of working life and private life
  • Interaction situations and negotiations

Information on working life

  • Salary requests and negotiations
  • Considering different jobs and functions
  • Doing case-based project work and following the right project in the mentor's work community
  • Researching a certain field/subject area and gathering realistic information about the development of the field

Transition into working life and networking

  • Recruitment channels, companies' recruitment processes, what things are sought from graduates in recruitment
  • Making contacts, getting to know people in the industry
  • Familiarisation with the mentor's workplace, visits to industry organisations with the mentor
  • Criteria for choosing a job

Other topics

  • Building an international career
  • Entrepreneurship, freelance work
  • Ethics of working life, working life rules
  • The position of minorities in working life

Think about what you want to know and what kind of support you need. Make a list of topics you want to talk about for each session.

Mentor, Aalto University Mentoring Programme

Further information and support for actors

  1. Meet a career coach to get further support for your career design. Read more and book a time for a personal meeting on Aalto JobTeaser
  2. Check out these Career Design Tools and take the Design a Meaningful Career open online course.
  3. Sign up for the Finland Works open online course to learn about Finnish working life.
  4. Join our job search training sessions to learn more about job hunting. Read more and sign up on Aalto JobTeaser
  5. Browse the Job Search Guide for tips on how to write your CV and cover letter.
  6. Meet employers and build your network at our recruitment events. Read more and sign up on Aalto JobTeaser.
Tips and tools for mentoring
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