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7.4.2 Seeking advice Perhaps the best place to receive feedback in a structured way is through mentoring schemes. Most universities have this sort of scheme where more experienced students are paired with newer students so they can learn how to get on at university. We find that very often other students can be a great source of advice about their experience of going through what it is you are going through.

As an EU student, coming from a non-English speaking country, I had a great number of questions about life at university from simple things such as the best mobile phone provider or bank to questions related to my course. My e-mentor managed to answer all my questions via e-mail and she always included more hints and tips and some personal examples about how she managed to overcome the same difficulties. I was extremely privileged to have the mentor that I had, as her help was extremely useful and it helped me to aim for more and be more confident in my skills and knowledge. As the scheme had a great influence on me I decided to become a mentor myself and tried to show a similar attitude and provide the same help to my mentee. She is now part of various societies, does extremely well in her modules and she told me how much my help benefited her throughout this academic year. Timea Bianca Tyukodi, BSc International Business and Management

Some universities also offer the opportunity to be mentored by external people. At Aston we have experienced managers mentoring second year undergraduates and the students tell us they benefit enormously from the expertise of people who are several years into their careers. With any mentoring scheme, you will only get out of the scheme what you put into it so it is important that you are proactive. Ask questions and push your mentor for all the advice and experience you can (within reason dont become a nuisance!). Try to open out your conversations beyond the immediate issues of university study and into areas such as leadership. Describe situations you think have gone well or not so well and ask for their advice on how you might have done things differently.

The professional mentoring scheme has been beneficial for me on a number of levels. My mentor has offered a different perspective on challenges that I have faced and on life in general. Decisions are not black and white the mentoring scheme has encouraged me to generate alternative solutions and to be analytical of everything. I am still in regular contact with my mentor even though the scheme has ended, and self-confidence in my abilities has increased having been able to work on addressing my weaknesses. My mentor also provides constant support to enable me to set and achieve career goals. Jenna Bonfiglio, BSc Business and Management

Aside from these set schemes, you can seek mentoring advice from people you respect both inside and outside university. The truth is that people like being asked for their advice and although it can vary in its quality, you can pick and choose which advice you decide to take. But also remember, sometimes if advice makes you feel uncomfortable, it is possibly because you know deep down it is right. Your lecturers can be a great source of mentoring advice and we have more about this in Chapter 4, which focuses on how to get the best out of your lecturers. Family friends can be a great place for mentoring advice. Pat has one family friend who has been a great source of advice about how to get on in academic life. These are people who are on your side and whilst they might not understand the nitty gritty of your course, they might be able to help with your general approach to things like managing team meetings and such like. Finally, you can reach out to a very large population through LinkedIn. The concept of this professional social network is to link people who already know each other. But these days it is also OK to contact people with whom you have perhaps a very tenuous link. The best approach is to be honest from the outset why you are contacting them edit the contact notification so it is personal and clearly state what you are seeking from them. 7.5 Taking it to work We have focused on the issue of leadership and being led in the context of student life, but of course these two roles are core features of the workplace. At work the role of manager or leader tends to be set out more clearly than at university and you might think that because you are not the designated leader or manager, this means you have no choice but to remain in the follower category. This is not really true. In order to get ahead at work, you need to be demonstrating your leadership abilities before you are placed into a position where this is formally part of your job description. But trying to take charge all the time can be a risky strategy because it can be inappropriate and can really annoy people. A certain degree of pushiness is a good thing but be sensitive to how your ambition is impinging on others. Our advice is to push your ideas and your contribution when you can genuinely add value. At other times you can show your commitment to team and organisational goals by being a dedicated worker and just getting on with the tasks in hand. A lot of how you play this at work depends on the culture of the business (i.e. how aggressive it is) and also whether you really understand enough about the job to be able to impose your views on the team. How you balance this is crucial and stems from your self-understanding and how you read other people. And this is further underscored by how you go about getting quality feedback from people around you.

please write under every heading for example 7.4.2 is the heading