Mentorship Program | University Students
Pairing university students with professional mentors to guide you in your journey and kick-start your capital markets career.
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Mentorship Program | Professionals
Sharing Knowledge and Experience to Move Careers Forward.
WCM's Professional Mentorship program has provided more than 1000 female finance professionals with access to formal mentorship relationships.
This founding WCM program pairs female protégées with mentors (male and female) outside their firm for a twelve-month period. With a mentor’s support and guidance, protégées establish career goals, discuss strategies to overcome challenges, benefit from a mentor’s knowledge and experience and extend their professional network. For mentors, the program is equally rewarding as it is an opportunity to share their knowledge and experience, coach, motivate, empower and support female professionals advance their careers.
With the program moving to a virtual format Mentors and Protégées from across North America are encouraged to apply.
Eligibility
PROTÉGÉE ELIGIBILITY:
- 1-15 years of experience in the finance industry.
- Currently employed in the finance industry;
- A full member of WCM;
- Clear understanding of career goals over the next 3 years, and defined reasons for seeking a mentor relationship;
- Full commitment to managing the mentorship relationship including ownership and coordination of monthly meetings. Protégés are to commit to being available for monthly meetings.
MENTOR ELIGIBILITY:
- Male and female applicants with 10+ years of experience in the finance industry
- Commitment to being available for monthly (approximately one hour) meetings.
- *Please Note: It is not mandatory to be a WCM member if you want to participate as a mentor in this program.
AdvanceAbility:
As part of the WCM Mentorship Program, there is also an opportunity to opt-in as an AdvanceAbility protégée during the application period. AdvanceAbility is supplemental to the core mentorship program and provides additional resources for women working in finance that identify as having a visible or non-visible disability. If you would like to learn more, please email info@wcm.ca to be connected with one of our AdvanceAbility volunteers.
Thank you to our AdvanceAbility Partner:
Pairing Process:
Using an algorithm, we pair mentors and protégée's, for optimal, unbiased pairing. In this process, location is considered but there is a chance a mentor and protégée may be in different regions.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Protégée Application Components:
- Completed application form
- Current Resume
Protégées: Consider applying to be a mentor in our University Mentorship Program, where we look for professionals employed in the financial services industry with 1-5 years experience. There is an option in the above form to apply.
Mentor Application Components:
- Completed application form
Successful candidates will be contacted via e-mail following the application close date.
2022 PROGRAM CYCLE | KEY DATES
- December 20 2022: Successful candidates notified
- January 25 2022: Mentorship Kick-Off Event
- February 2022: Mentor Connect Session
- March 10 2022: Facet5 Debrief for Protégées
- May 11, 2022: Protégée Skill Build #1
- June 7, 2022: Protégée Skill Build #2
- September 22, 2022: Speed Networking Event
- October 19, 2022: Applications open for 2023 cohort
- November 16, 2022: Applications close for 2023 cohort
Programs
See AllSince 1995 WCM has been designing and evolving our professional programming to meet the needs of professionals in Canadian capital markets. With programs curated for each level of your career, our programming provides the resources, knowledge and skill development that will propel and advance your career. Designed to support your professional development journey, discover our programs for entry, mid and executive level professionals.
Over the 12 month program, both Mentors and Protégées will be invited to sessions and provided additional resources. Some of the sessions and events included in the program are listed below, further ones may be added at a later date.
Facet5: Protégées benefit from a professional personality test with a full session from Felix Global.
Skill Build Sessions: Protégées are invited to take part in two skill-building sessions designed to build professional skills and networks.
Mentor Connect Sessions: Mentors will be invited to take part in a session designed to provide resources on how to be the most effective mentor.
Speed Mentoring Event: An evening of speed mentoring to close out the mentorship program will take place in the early fall. This is where you will meet other Mentor and Protégées and share your experiences.
the value of MENTORSHIP
- 75% of private sector executives say mentoring has been critical in their own career development
- 77% of companies with mentoring programs say these programs greatly improve employee retention and job performance
- 79% of millenials believe mentorship programs are crucial to their career success
WHY MENTOR?
Mentors have the unique opportunity to support the professional development of protégées and maximize their potential through knowledge sharing, support and guidance in the advancement of their skills and expertise. A mentorship relationship fosters the growth, learning and development of a protégé that can impact their personal and professional life for years to come.
WHY BE A PROTÉGÉE?
Protégées are offered the opportunity to experience the power of wisdom by a professional holding the experience and knowledge to truly impact the growth of their career, while benefiting from the human connection through this formative relationship. Establish tangible career plans, goal setting, grow professional networks and develop problem solving skills for professional challenges. The rewards are timeless.
WCM Mentorship program is truly changing lives. It’s not always possible to predict how exactly a program will transform lives and everyone will be impacted in different ways but for me the mentorship program truly has. Through high caliber mentors and high caliber presenters, WCM has created a space for growth and realizations that pushes high performers to reach their full potential.
Protégée Participant
Broadening the intellectual input of the business is essential for its investment
Mentor Participant
I have found it rewarding to pass on the knowledge I have gained through my experiences in helping new entrants in the financial markets industry negotiate the minefield of the early years of their careers.
Mentor Participant
My mentor not only shared her industry insights, but also gave me advice when I tried to make a career move. The guidance is essential to someone new to the industry.
Protégée Participant
Having a wife who also works in Capital Markets has allowed me to closely experience the challenges she has navigated while building her career in this field. She has been inspirational to me and I have seen her build a great business and career. I see every day from her example and others around me that to truly build successful businesses, firms have to value diversity of thought above else and advancing and retaining women in capital markets is crucial to ensuring this diversity of thought endures.
Mentor Participant
Sounds obvious to anyone that every individual should have opportunities to grow in every industry independent of race, gender, etc. Finance should lead the way!
Mentor Participant
I began my career in finance in the mid 1980s when there were very few women in the industry. As such, I value the opportunity to help navigate the career path for younger women today. Having more women in capital markets is extremely important in terms of achieving equality and diversity which will benefit all.
Mentor Participant
Women bring another perspective to the business, make strong leaders, and can offer well thought out solutions to problems. Their voices are often not given a chance to be heard and sometimes there is an over worry of barriers. A more diversified company can help align with the needs of your own diversified clients. I think the WCM mentorship program is great in helping with these areas and a wonderful program for both the Mentee and Mentor.
Mentor Participant
Women bring a unique perspective to capital markets in the way that they develop and manage relationships and drive forward initiatives. It is very important to elevate strong females as much as possible so they are able to share their voice/opinions. This program offers that opportunity.
Mentor Participant
It is essential to get the best performance of any team - having diverse views and the best people is key. Advancing women and retaining them is something I have done throughout my whole career.
Mentor Participant
Our industry needs more women leaders. I value helping ambitious and capable women reach their career potential in capital markets.
Mentor Participant
As a woman in Finance, I am committed to sharing my experiences and to helping others get the best access to training and opportunities to further their personal and career goals. Women need advocates and coaching so they are best prepared to succeed in this industry.
Mentor Participant
Diversity in capital markets is important. This is the only way to have a diversity of views. This will only be achieved if women are supported throughout their career. The mentoring program is a necessary condition to achieving this.
Mentor Participant
Having been the only female on the trading desk for the past ten years, I really hope that I can help attracting more females into the trading role. Gender diversity has been improved over the past few years but still a lot room to improve. By having more senior female leaders in the industry as role models, female will feel more encouraged to enter and stay in the field once dominated by male.
Mentor Participant
I am involved in a number of mentoring programs and WCM continues to be the best, and the value add to the Mentors in recent years has been great.
