Become an actor
You are eligible to join the mentoring programme as an actor (mentee), if you are a master's or doctoral degree student and you are enrolled at the university when the programme starts. You can apply for the Aalto Mentoring Program 2026 24th-30th November. Stay tuned for more information!
Should I participate in the Mentoring Programme?
In Aalto University Mentoring Programme, mentoring refers to a long-term and goal-oriented conversational relationship, in which a working mentor acts as a sounding board, sparring partner, and supporter for the student being mentored, i.e. the actor.
The Aalto University Mentoring Programme is a six-month Programme running from January to June.
The Programme includes
- Briefing sessions for students and for mentors (on Zoom)
- One-to-one mentoring meetings approximately once a month during December-Maay
- Halfway checkin survey and feedback survey at end of the Program
The topics discussed in mentoring are always based on the actor's personal needs and goals, and it is especially the actor's own development process.
With the help of mentoring, you can, among other things
- find and clarify your own career goals and dreams
- expand your knowledge of working life and alternative careers
- develop your professional skills and improve your job search skills
- develop your interaction and communication skills
- challenge yourself to encounter new ideas and views
- expand your network
To become an actor, it is essential that you are willing to develop yourself, you have an active attitude and you are ready to commit and take a proactive role in the mentoring process. Already when applying you should be ready to set targets for the mentoring and to your own progress.
In one-on-one discussions with your mentor, an actor should have courage to bring out their own views, to give feedback and even disagree with the mentor. It is actor´s role to make sure that the mentoring process progress with regular meetings once a month. Mentor’s role is to provide support and inspiration and to be a sounding board for the actor’s ideas. An actor should keep in mind that it is not the mentor’s task to solve actor’s problems but to help an actor to solve the problems by themselves.
Mentor, Aalto University Mentoring ProgrammeReflect on what you want out of Mentoring Programme and tell it to your mentor. The whole Programme is built for you.
What does it take to participate in the mentoring programme?
A mentoring relationship requires commitment and time. Before applying for the programme, consider whether you have the motivation to commit to mentoring alongside your studies and potential job. Apply only if you are motivated and willing to commit to the mentoring process. Remember, mentoring is for your benefit!
What we expect from you
- commitment to mentoring for the duration of the programme (December-May) - including during a possible exchange
- an active and proactive role in relation to your mentor
- open and confidential communication with your mentor
- setting targets and agreeing on practical issues together with your mentor
- understanding that your mentor is not expected to offer you a job offer or another placement
- responding to mentoring enquiries and providing feedback
- in case of problems contacting the mentoring programme leader
Who are the mentors?
Mentors are mainly Aalto University graduates, alumni, who have at least four years of working experience after completing their degree. The pool of mentors is very diverse; There are experts, managers, leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, newly retired, people who have changed their career path. There are also mentors have a degree from another university than Aalto.
Majority of mentors live in Helsinki region, but there are also mentors living outside capital area or abroad. What connects mentors is their willingness to help and support students with the concerns and questions students themselves have about working life and career. Mentors act in their role voluntarily, usually alongside to their day job.
Actor, Aalto University Mentoring ProgrammeYou get to know a new person and form a bond that you otherwise wouldn't. It opens new opportunities.
Apply to mentoring programme
You can register and search for a mentor candidate on the Aalto Mentoring Platform 24th-30th November (student link to Platform: ).You can send a mentoring request directly to a suitable candidate. Please note that the link is different than the mentor sign up link. We recommend you to use the platform on a computer, not on your phone.
Please read the information below carefully before registering to the Platform. If you encounter technical problems, please contact crm-support@aalto.fi.
Due to the building of our new mentoring platform, the 2025 programme and registration will start slightly later than usual.
Schedule 2025
- Mentors sign up as mentor candidates 1st-14th November
- Students search for a suitable mentor candidate and send a mentoring request 24th-30th November.
- Briefing Sessions are organized for matched students Wed 3rd December and for new mentors Thu 4th December (on Zoom).
The Programme runs for approximately 6 months from December-May, during which you will meet your mentor once a month.
You are eligible to join as an actor (mentee), if you are a master's or doctoral degree student and you are enrolled at the university when the programme starts in January.
Please note that this Program is not open to exchange students.
- Go through the mentoring programme website and instructions carefully.
Think about why you want to be part of the mentoring programme and what you expect from your future mentor. - Log in to the Aalto University mentoring platform and fill in your profile.
Be as specific as possible about your wishes and expectations, as the mentor will decide whether they could be the right mentor for you based on your profile. - Browse through the mentor candidates and check out their profiles.
Please note that some mentors only mentor Master's students and some only doctoral students. Please also check the mentoring languages indicated by the mentor before submitting your mentoring request - Send a mentoring request.
When you find a suitable mentor candidate, send them a mentoring request and wait for them to accept your request. You can send a request to one mentor candidate at a time. If you send a mentoring request to more than one mentor at the same time, we will keep the first request you sent and deactivate the rest of the requests. - Set up first mentoring meeting.
Once the mentor candidate has accepted your request, you will receive each other's contact details by email and you can arrange your first mentoring meeting. Please also sign up for the briefing session for new actors taking place Wed 3rd December. - If the mentor candidate is no longer available or does not feel they are a suitable mentor for you, you will be notified and can return to look for a new mentor candidate. If the mentor candidate does not respond to your request, the request will expire within 3 days and you will be able to search for a new mentor candidate and send a new request.
We ask you about your studies, and your needs and expectations for mentoring. Some of the study information will be retrieved directly from Sisu.
Before you sign up, we recommend you to draft an answer to the question: what are your hopes and expectations for mentoring? What kind of help would you like to receive from a mentor? When you log in to the platform, you can copy the answer into your profile data.
Please note that all the information you fill in on the mentoring platform, except for your email address, will be visible to the mentor candidate to whom you have sent the mentoring request. Your email will be to the mentor candidate only when they accept you as an actor.
When you send a mentoring request to the candidate of your choice, we ask you to write a message to the mentor candidate. In this message, you can tell the candidate why you are asking them to be your mentor. The message does not have to be long. It should show that you are familiar with the mentor's profile and introduction. A good justification will help the mentor to decide whether or not to accept the mentoring request.
Information on your participation in the Mentoring Programme and information on the mentoring pair will be saved in Aalto University CRM system.
The mentor profiles contain information about the mentor candidates' studies, career, professional skills. We have also asked the mentors to tell us what they expect from mentoring and if they have any specific wishes for the student. The doctoral students' mentors are mainly doctoral graduates who work outside the academia.
Most of the mentor candidates are alumni of Aalto University (and its predecessor universities, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics and University of Arts and Design Helsinki) or Aalto EE, but there are also some mentors who have completed their degrees elsewhere.
Mentors are classified into industry-specific categories. The division has been made partly based on the mentor's industry and partly on the basis of the job. It is clear that the mentor of many could be placed in several categories. We recommend you search a mentor from many different categories!
In the mentor profile, you can see in which language(s) the mentor is ready to mentor. There are some mentors that are only available to mentor in Finnish. Some mentor also in Swedish. Please check the mentoring language before sending the mentoring request!
Information for the 2026 Program will be updated later here!
In 2025, we can offer a mentor for 292 students (48 doctoral students and 244 master's students).
There are 242 mentors registered, some of whom can mentor two students.
Below you can see the number of mentors currently (17 Jan) registered, broken down by the mentor's field of work:
- Software development, digital services, IT consulting: 38
- Product development, product management, research and development, logistics: 36
- Management consulting, business consulting, other expert services: 20
- Business development: 19
- Design, service design, user-oriented design: 24
- Entrepreneurship, investment: 13
- Marketing, communications, branding, advertising: 12
- Data Analytics, Business Intelligence: 9
- Telecommunication, information security: 9
- Construction and real estate: 8
- Academic research and education, public administration: 7
- Architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning: 7
- Human resource management, HR, employer image, recruitment, coaching: 7
- Art, visual culture, art education: 4
- Process industry, biotechnology: 4
- Trade, retail, sales, customer relationships: 4
- Finance, insurance, banking: 6
- Energy sector: 3
- TV and film industry: 3
- Pharmaceutical industry, healthcare sector: 2
- Responsibility, environment, sustainable development: 2
- Financial management, accounting, controlling: 1
- Please note that some mentors only mentor master's students and some only doctoral students. Please check this as well the mentor's mentoring language when looking for a suitable candidate.
- Apply for a mentor with an open mind and look for mentor candidates also among candidates other than your own field. The mentor's background and experience do not necessarily have to be similar to yours. By browsing the mentor candidates, you will notice that among the mentors that have stayed advanced in their field and on the other hand, there are mentors who have ended up far from their original studies.
- Think about what kind of mentor you would get along well with and what kind of mentoring you need. Some of the mentors are experienced mentors and some are beginners in the role of mentor.
- Read the descriptions of the mentors carefully and trust your intuition when choosing a mentor candidate.
- Remember that mentoring is an interactive conversational relationship in which the mentor helps you find the answers to your questions. Mentor's purpose is not to be an all-encompassing information bank. Mentoring is primarily your development project!
Once you have found a suitable mentoring candidate, you can send them a mentoring request. View the mentor's details by clicking on the mentor's name in the mentor list. Once the information opens, click the button at the bottom of the page to send the mentoring request.
On the next page, we will ask you to write a greeting to the mentor candidate. In this message, we ask you to tell the mentor candidate why you are asking him/her to be your mentor. The message does not have to be long. It should show that you are familiar with the mentor's profile and introduction. A good justification will help the mentor to decide whether to accept the mentoring request.
Please note that all the information you fill in on the mentoring platform, apart from your email address, will be visible to the mentor candidate to whom you send the mentoring request. However, your email address will only be sent to the mentor candidate when they accept you as as an actor (mentee).
Frequently asked questions
Here you will find the most frequently asked questions about the mentoring programme. If you can't find the answer, please contact careerdesignlab@aalto.fi.
Reach out for more information
