About

The AMB faculty-postdoc mentoring program aims at supporting young scientists in their career planning with a mentor complementing their supervisor. The focus is not on science, but on career advancement. The program is run by AMB, the scientific staff association in DBIOL at the ETH Zürich and supported by the department.

Postdocs and faculty mentors participate in the program on a voluntary basis. AMB will match 2-5 postdocs to one faculty mentor (not from the same institute) based on a confidential questionnaire in which the postdocs can express their interests and needs. Mentoring groups should meet as often as they decide and together discuss about topics they agreed upon based on their needs and interests. We will suggest potential points for discussion and we will provide an individual development plan that each participant can fill in and use to self-reflect prior to the first meeting.

The frequency and duration of the meetings will be arranged with the faculty mentor in each case. A designated postdoc (hereinafter referred as the group coordinator) in each group will be selected to be in charge of scheduling the meetings according to the faculty schedule and of setting up the agenda. Every member of the group is expected to participate in the meetings on a regular basis.

Scientific discussions are not the scope of the meetings. The mentors are not meant to substitute the academic advisor, but they are a complement of the mentees training.

Content of the mentoring meetings must be absolutely confidential and ideally the mentoring group can become a space for sharing sensitive and personal issues. All the participants need to adhere to the meeting schedule and guidelines.

Mentees