Our mentoring programs aim to support women and gender minorities*1 . They are diversity- and resource-oriented and therefore very individual.
We assume that self-directed career management for applicants is playing an increasingly important role in the professional development of young professionals due to the increasing diversity of the labour market and the complex demands placed on young professionals.
Therefore we try to find out for each of our mentees where their competences and resources lie and how they can use them for their further professional career.
This follows the career resource model of the work and organisational psychologist Andreas Hirschi*2.
He distinguishes four resource areas that are crucial for a successful professional career:
- Identity resources that include the knowledge of one's own abilities, competencies and goals
- Human capital resources describing all technical skills, soft skills or knowledge relating to the labour market
- Social resources, i.e. advantageous professional support networks, and
- Psychological resources that describe the inner attitude
*1 Gender minorities include students and doctoral candidates whose identities do not correspond to standardized gender identities, e.g. transgender, transsex, intersex.
*2 Andreas Hirschi: The career resources model: An integrative framework for career counsellors. In: British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. Vol. 40, No 4, August 2012, 369-383.