Mentor and mentee examining a sticky note together

Professional Success

Mentorship and working with your faculty

Find tools for building clear expectations, strengthening communication and developing as both a mentee and a mentor.

Building strong mentoring relationships

Effective mentoring is an important part of a successful postdoctoral experience. As a postdoc, you may be building relationships with faculty mentors, advanced scholars and research collaborators while also mentoring undergraduate students, graduate students or other members of your research team.

The resources on this page can help you think about what you need from a mentoring relationship, how to communicate with your faculty mentor and how to continue developing as a mentor yourself.

Your role

Working with your faculty mentor

Your relationship with your faculty mentor or principal investigator can shape your research progress, professional development and next career steps. Early conversations can help you clarify expectations around communication, authorship, funding, timelines, independence, teaching, mentoring, career goals and evaluation.

As you begin or continue your postdoc appointment, talk to your mentor about:

Communication norms Discuss how you and your mentor will communicate, make decisions and address questions or concerns.
Research goals Clarify expectations for your role, responsibilities, research goals and progress.
Feedback Identify how you prefer to receive feedback and how often you will discuss your work.
Mentor support Clarify what you need from your mentor to feel supported and successful in your postdoc role.
Career development Talk about your professional development, career plans and opportunities that support your next step.

Featured mentorship resources

Growing as a mentor

Postdocs often serve as mentors to undergraduate students, graduate students or junior researchers. Learning effective mentoring practices can help you support others while also strengthening your own leadership, communication and project management skills.

Mentoring is not only about giving advice. It also includes listening, setting clear expectations, creating supportive research and learning environments and helping mentees build confidence and independence.

On This Page:

Building strong mentoring relationships

Your role

Working with your faculty mentor

Featured mentorship resources

Growing as a mentor