Check out our article to learn about Mentor Collective and see if it makes sense for your career goals.
Updated in 2023
- What is Mentor Collective?
- Who is Mentor Collective for?
- What does Mentor Collective cost?
- Ratings and reviews of Mentor Collective
- Alternatives to Mentor Collective
- How does Mentor Collective compare to Pathrise?
What is Mentor Collective?
Working with students in college, including online and adult learners, Mentor Collective partners with institutions and provides programs to help with the first-year experience and career development.
Students are matched with older students or recent alumni mentors. These mentors are unpaid and have up to 5 mentees at a time. Meetings are done in person, over the phone, or through video conferencing. According to an article from EdSurge, “Nearly all of the mentors have completed an online training, which includes a mentor trainer and coach webinar”. They also provide communication tools, like text and email platforms, for mentors and mentees.
They claim to have 30,000 mentor pairings at over 60 colleges nationwide, including Princeton University, Pennsylvania State University and Indiana University Bloomington.
Who is Mentor Collective for?
Students who are looking for additional help beyond what their university services can provide might benefit from the program. Given that the program matches students with older students or very recent alumni, the level of guidance for some questions might not be as strong as other, more advanced mentors.
What does Mentor Collective cost? How much work is involved?
The program is free for students who want to get matched with a mentor through the program. The schools pay them based on the number of students matched with mentors. Students must first register on the platform. Then, they fill out a form with their interests. After that, they match with their mentor.
Ratings and reviews
There are not many reviews online from students who have utilized the program since it is fairly new. The main reviews come from potential mentors. Many feel that being asked to mentor 5 students at a time is too much for a volunteer role.
Alternatives to Mentor Collective
- For students who want guidance on their job search, the Muse is a good place to look. They have a robust blog with articles for people who are looking for help in any aspect of their career. They also have career coaches for hire based on topic.
- Similarly, people can look to Korn Ferry Advance, a fairly new career coaching subscription service. KF Advance helps candidates with all aspects of their career, from resume to promotions. They are a subsidiary of Korn Ferry, a global consulting firm focused on strategic and organizational change. They also help place candidates in roles at their partner companies.
How does Mentor Collective compare to Pathrise?
Mentor Collective is a volunteer-based organization that matches students with student and young alumni mentors to help them with their first year of college or career development.
Pathrise is a full service organization that pairs fellows with experienced mentors, both for career and industry-specific guidance. Fellows learn data-backed tools that have helped 1,000+ people optimize their job search and land a great job. The curriculum is personalized to each fellow. All of our sessions are 1-on-1 between the fellow and mentor. Our workshops cover the most important topics related to the job search. Plus, we help fellows prepare for technical challenges and assessments with our technical training.
Specifically, Pathrise focuses on technical and behavioral interviewing as well as resume and LinkedIn optimization, portfolio building and strengthening, cold email and reverse recruiting lessons, and negotiation templates and guidance. Job-seekers in Pathrise find a job, on average, within 3-5 months of joining the program.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. If you want to work with any of our mentors to get help with your technical and behavioral interviews or with any other aspect of the job search, join Pathrise.
Apply today.
