Things to cover during orientation mentoring

The purpose of the Orientation Mentoring track is to bring new employees up to speed on the IT ecosystem at the university, make sure they have the tools and understanding to succeed, and make sure they are comfortable with the aspects of their job. To that end we’ve put together the following list of topics that mentees can use to guide their learning and discussions during their meetings with orientation mentors.

Surviving and thriving

Topics

  • Understanding and getting comfortable with your work environment and what is expected of you
  • Accessibility, accommodations, support resources
  • Understanding and configuring your personal info and benefits, etc.

Resources

 

IT at the College of Engineering

Topics

  • Reaching out to colleagues across the org
  • Learning the org’s divisions, teams, and virtual teams, and their members
  • Understanding the purposes, functions, and services of the divisions and teams
  • Knowing how to identify subject matter experts, and who best to ask
  • Knowing our offices, buildings, and other locations across the Engineering campus
  • Knowing the different Engineering units (departments), their buildings and locations
  • Understanding how our services are consumed by different units
  • Knowing org-level tools, and when, how and why to use them
  • Knowing how to finding info and documentation
  • Learning acronyms

Things you can do

  • Visit various EngrIT office locations and meet members of other divisions and teams
  • Attend (or present at) org-level meetings, such as lightning talks, CCRT round table meetings, and all-hands meetings, etc.
  • Visit, connect with, or join virtual teams
  • Work out shadowing opportunities with your manager
  • Peek at work/tickets performed by various teams

Resources

 

IT at the university

Topics

  • Understanding relationships between IT orgs at system vs. campus vs. college vs. unit/group levels
  • Being familiar with other major IT players such as Tech Services, AITS, ATLAS, FAA, etc
  • Having a rough understanding of campus geography and locations
  • Knowing which services and resources Tech Services is responsible for
  • Familiarizing yourself with campus resources and IT Pro tools that are commonly relevant to your work
  • Knowing how to find documentation and how to contact subject matter experts related to campus services

Things you can do

Resources

 

Engineering IT culture

Topics

  • Expectations of personal effectiveness and autonomy
  • Being comfortable with ambiguity
  • Ownership
  • Integrating professional etiquette and general career maturity
    • Exploring and settling into EngrIT culture
    •  Introducing yourself, contributing and speaking in teams and meetings
    • Understanding and working with CRMs and facilitation methods
  • Awareness of and proficiency with IT Pro tools and resources
  • Asking the right questions, contextualizing, learning, and internalizing
  • How to succeed as a mentee or mentor
  • Petting the hedgehog

Things you can do

  • Develop techniques for managing time, priorities, calendaring, and email
  • Make use of face-time and develop relationships with peers
  • Have short and long term learning and accomplishment goals/roadmaps

Resources