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Guide to being a good mentor

As we stated earlier, we appreciate your involvement in this scheme. The students have been provided with some guidance and instructions, so in fairness to them we feel it appropriate to suggest a few ideas to you also.

1. Provide students with encouragement to participate fully in this scheme. They need your help and they value your knowledge.
2. Understand that by and large students are young and have little or no property experience. It is safe to assume little or no prior property knowledge.
3. Students will generally be apprehensive about asking questions, however they have been instructed to prepare questionsexpect to be quizzed.
4. Please prepare for their visits (meetings). We have all had the experience of some one in the next office saying at 5.45 pm, I almost forgot, weve got a work experience guy/girl coming in tomorrow morning.what will we get them to do. I think this is where the photocopying comes in. The University and the API do not expect the mentor to do all the work. The mentor can almost be seen as a Co-ordinator.
5. Once the program is in place with your student, organise with others in your office to prepare for their meeting, but you should oversee.
6. Meetings can be as simple as participating in the buzz on the morning of an auction. Signboards in the car, last minute phone calls to buyers, checking vendors statements, checking contract notes, checking forms are ready to be on display, meeting the owner, the auction and so on. Remember that most students would really get a lot of value in simply being there. They won't be skilled in checking contracts or the likes, but they will, after that experience have a greater knowledge of the auction selling process. Other examples would be:

• Site inspections, measuring up industrial buildings
• Getting on to Upmarket and assisting with comparable sales
• Sitting in on a sales meeting
• Sitting in on a property management, valuation or leasing meeting
• Inspecting selected office buildings, retail centres, houses
• Assisting in preparing a marketing schedule, meeting with your advertising agents
• Simply sitting down with an operator in the selected field to discuss his/her roles in that office and how the role involves others

Meetings can also involve discussions on issues such as:

• Career options and planning and setting of career goals
• Job seeking skills
• Professional ethics

 

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