Mentoring and the consultancy committee
175 minutes for chemistry
Hooshang Zavareh, a committee member on the Royal Society of Chemistry Consultancy Interest Group shares with us how he’s spent his 175 minutes this year in his own time and with the rest of the committee.
Each year I spend some time mentoring people who are facing turning points in their careers or are grappling with difficult decisions about their future personal or work lives. This includes people who are made redundant at work or are forced to change their career direction completely.
People can usually get help toward reemployment elsewhere, but mentoring them requires building a personal and trusting relationship with someone who has the relevant experience and knowledge to guide them through the options and help them evaluate the outcomes.
Mentoring people is entirely voluntary and does not involve any ties or expectation of reward, but I find it very pleasing to see how the people I have mentored have successfully steered their careers in different directions and now lead happy lives and hold productive positions.
My personal involvement with the Consultancy Group Committee this year has been very satisfying in that with the RSC's help we have accomplished the following objectives:
1. Participated in a ChemCareers webinar on 'How to become a consultant'
2. Collaborated with Royal Society of Chemistry staff to deliver the creation and launch of the Directory of Consultants
3. Carried out a survey with our interest group members on their current activities and additional support requirements
4. Organised a webinar for consultants on 'Pricing your professional services'
5. We organised our AGM and invited two speakers to give talks on topics relevant to consultants
6. Worked with Royal Society of Chemistry staff to negotiate with insurers to offer PII (Professional Indemnity Insurance) for consultancy group members on favourable terms
Get involved
If you are interested in joining the Consultancy Group or becoming a member of their committee then get in touch with them via their page.
Here at the Royal Society of Chemistry we run a mentoring scheme specifically for you, our members, giving you the opportunity to become a mentor or a mentee. Our mentoring scheme gives members the chance to discuss any aspect of their professional development with a fellow member. Through the scheme, mentees can take the opportunity to think about their career and objectives, while mentors not only find the experience rewarding, but also develop new skills themselves.
You can read more about this scheme and how some of our current mentors have found it here.
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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