Peer Mentorship Program

The Peer Mentorship Program, coordinated by SWS, WIB, and FA, matches high-achieving upperclassmen who have professional and advanced curricular experiences with engaged students who are seeking to follow in similar career footsteps. Its aspiration is to create an expansive, yet personable, program that allows William & Mary mentors the opportunity to give back to the tight knit business school community and mentees the chance to receive guidance from their older peers.

Each semester, the program takes place over five weeks and each week focuses on a single aspect of professional development, such as resume writing and behavioral interviews. The program coordinators provide the mentors with supplemental materials and guiding discussion questions, and the mentees also have access to group workshops. In the past year, our program has grown from about 20 students to over 70 students, and we now have mentors and mentees from all four business majors.

Who can be a mentor?

Mentors are the most valuable resources in our program, and we sincerely welcome you to join us if you have the following experience. This is a great chance to give back to our W&M community and connect with other mentors and mentees to expand your network.

Junior or Senior who is taking upper-level courses in your major
- for example, if you are a finance major, you completed the block semester and are taking 327/329/400-level classes
Had at least one internship experience and went through the recruiting process
Willing to help younger peers to explore both on campus resources and the recruiting process
Welcome all majors from the Business School as well as other liberal arts majors who have relevant experience

If you have additional questions about qualifications, please feel free to contact any of the program coordinators in the team section. We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Who can be a mentee?

We’ve been in your shoes and we want to tell you everything we’ve learned since then. The program helps you with Mason curriculum, interview skills, career advice, technical interviews, and much more.

Any business-interested or financial services-interested student
First Year, Sophomore, or other students new to the financial services recruiting process
Strong interest to learn from experienced peers

If you have additional questions about qualifications, please feel free to contact any of the program coordinators in the team section. We are more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

How does the program work?

The Peer Mentorship Program is a 5-week program running each semester in the following steps:

When and where do mentors and mentees meet?

Once we complete the pairing assignments, we will introduce this in more detail during the program kickoff night (all mentors and mentees are required to attend). Mentors and mentees should meet at any time and any day in a given week. Mentors and mentees are welcome to either meet in-person or online via zoom at your own preferences. We recommend the meeting time for each week to be around 30-60 minutes to fit your needs.

What are expectations for mentees?

Our mentors volunteered their precious time to participate in the program, so we would like to let the mentees be mindful and respectful about their mentors’ time. We believe you will get the most of the program if you follow the expectations below:

Be proactive and let the your mentor know your goals at week 1, so mentor could help you to design a customized meeting schedule and topics
Be responsive to mentors texts or emails regarding meeting times
Make sure to do what the mentor recommended you to do in advance, such as, resume, interview prep, etc.
Have fun and build your network through this program

Syllabus

We enable mentors and mentees to customize meeting topics given everyone has different goals and career interests. We recommend mentors to consider choosing a few from the following topics and provide resources for each. However, mentors have the flexibility to combine a few topics into one meeting or cover additional areas of interest for the mentee.

Determining career goals
Academic and extracurricular resources support for mentees interested in applying Mason
Resume
Cover Letter
Networking
Internship Search Process
Understanding your industry & necessary skill sets for this career path
Behavioral interview / Personal story prep (Optional In-Person Mock Interview)
Technical interview prep for industry specific interview (Optional In-Person Mock Interview)

Group Events

In addition to the individual events, we may also host three group events to enrich your experience with more people and resources.

Engage in casual conversation with other mentors who can provide insight from their journey
- Be paired with upperclassmen who have pursued opportunities in areas of interest
Meet young alumni and other experienced people in the field
Discuss behavioral and technical interview tips and tricks with program coordinators and peers

The Team

Peer Mentorship Program Coordinators are club officers who create & present the Peer Mentorship Program’s content with the direction & supervision of the Boehly Center.