How a graduate engineer’s mentor supports their career and chartership plans

Jon and Jol both work in Mott MacDonald’s railways division in Croydon. Jol is in charge of the division, which consists of around 150 engineers. He is also its senior supervising civil engineer, meaning that he is responsible for ensuring that all employees working towards chartership with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) achieve their goal. This is Jon’s aim, which involves building knowledge and experience over several years to meet a set of around 20 criteria.

How mentoring graduate engineers helps towards becoming chartered

Jol has been Jon’s mentor for three years. ‘We meet roughly once every three months, typically for an hour to an hour and a half,’ Jol explains. ‘We review Jon’s progress towards meeting the criteria for chartership and look for opportunities to fill in the gaps.’ This involves identifying both short-term and long-term goals, as Jon outlines. ‘We look at bigpicture issues that have to be considered well in advance – for example, I need to get involved in a complex technical design project at some stage, so Jol is on the look-out for suitable options,’ he states. ‘However, I also generate more immediate actions – often things that I can find out about and act on for myself, such as attending an ICE lecture on the institution’s history,’ he continues. Jol and Jon have an online system to record progress towards chartership and keep a log of actions completed.

Discussing long-term plans for Jon’s engineering career

However, the mentoring relationship is not purely about chartership. ‘We also discuss topics such as Jon’s career development once he is professionally qualified,’ adds Jol, ‘as well as any more general help and advice that he needs.’ Jon expands that: ‘I can ask Jol’s opinion on both technical and non-technical topics. Often it’s simply a case of clarifying who the best person is for me to ask about a particular problem, or getting some historical background on why a certain aspect of the rail industry is as it is today.’

What both engineers get out of the mentoring partnership

Both Jon and Jol get a great deal out of the mentoring partnership. Jon enthuses that: ‘For me, the best thing is that Jol has “been there and done that”. He knows what’s expected of me, and is honest about what my strengths are and which areas I still need to work on.’ Jol enjoys ‘the personal satisfaction of helping people develop.’ He adds that: ‘As a senior member of the engineering profession I have a duty to nurture the next generation.’

How graduate engineers can get the best from their mentor

Jol’s role in the company is largely a management one, so developing the team is very much part of his job. However, he advises future graduate engineers that in some cases it’s best to arrange to meet your mentor out of working hours. ‘You’ll often get the best out of people when they’re most relaxed, rather than watching the clock to dash off to their next meeting,’ he explains. ‘Consider suggesting to meet after work and discussing your career development over a drink.’

Jon Franklin-Ferrar and Jol Bates both work for Mott MacDonald. Jon is a graduate civil engineer with a BEng in civil engineering from the University of Nottingham. Jol is divisional director – railways – with an MA in engineering from the University of Cambridge.