As we close out January, National Mentoring Month, we would like to introduce the enhanced and updated mentor search feature on Firsthand! With Syracuse University’s notable network of stellar alumni, Firsthand allows for students to explore different careers while expressing mentoring needs. This update allows for greater exposure to an even larger number of mentors who are excited to give back to the Orange Community. The mentor-mentee matching program has become more simplified and increased accuracy between matches.
Using The Feature
- Go to syracuse.firsthand.co and sign in or sign up with your SU NetID information.
- Once you are logged in, in the upper right-hand corner you will see your name, make sure to click on that and select “My Profile.” Make sure to update your profile with updated information on your experiences, education, career goals, or campus involvement.
- Once your account is updated, you can hit the drop-down button next to your name in the top right corner and hit “My Dashboard.” On the left-head side of that page there will be a section that says “Mentors.” Click on that button and you will see the enhanced search engine.
- This search engine features many different filters such as “Advice Topics” with a subset “Career” where you can filter the advice that you are looking for from the alumni. There are also groups, employers, locations, fields of study, functions, industries, universities, and languages that you can also apply filters to get a mentor that matches what you’re looking for from a connection.
*A fun fact about the mentor tab is that you can see who you are best matched with based on shared interests or experiences. *
Advice for Reaching Out to Alumni
Reaching out to an alumnus can be intimidating but remember that these alumni want to help you! Try to remove that pressure and be your authentic self when speaking with an alumnus.
Remain professional and courteous in your responses and respect their time. A typical professional guideline I like to follow is responding within 24 hours of receiving a communication from someone. But when meeting with an alumnus make sure to be prepared and on time or communicate efficiently if you are running late or a schedule change comes up.
In this search, make sure to respect your own time as well; the opportunities are endless when reaching out to our alumni network, but make sure to not overwhelm yourself in your search and over commit to speaking with a lot of alumni at once. It is important to try to connect and talk with people, but take it slow at first!
It’s also okay to let a conversation die down for a while. Sometimes a conversation is all you need! But make sure to reach out here and then with something relating to your shared interest or conversation from before. This will be good motivation to keep yourself updated on industry news or current events relating to your interests. Making sure you’re informed on the topics you discuss will help further your conversations and your career success!
Career Services Can Help You
If you aren’t sure what to search, want to narrow down your goals, need more thorough help with navigating Firsthand, want more advice on speaking with alumni, or if you even need help writing that first message, you can:
- Make an appointment with us on Handshake
- Connect with your specialized school or college career center
- Or send us an email via careers@syr.edu, and we can guide you through the process.
We are here to help you utilize your resources!
