Prepare your CEC Mentee application

PREPARE YOUR CEC MENTEE APPLICATION

CEC Mentoring typically works well for:

• Entrepreneurs who are running a circular economy project in their cities
• Postgraduate students working on a circular economy thesis
• Professionals working to turn their organisational processes circular

CEC Mentors are experts with 7+ years of experience working on projects in the Circular Economy. They offer their time on a volunteer basis to give advice to the next generation of CE leaders. CEC is committed to support the most promising circular talent and thus you would need to show you are putting an effort into making the most of your mentorship sessions. Therefore, before you apply, please be sure to:

 

The CEC is only able to approve applications that are well-researched and address a challenge that is uniquely suited to the expertise of a CEC mentor.

1. Have a succinct presentation of your circular economy project

You should gather all relevant project details into a 1-page brief, a website, or a 4-slide presentation so that you can share them easily with your mentor ahead of your call.

2. Identify a specific challenge that you need help with

CEC Mentors can best help when they are addressing a specific problem or challenge. The more detail, the better! Dive into the problem so you can understand the most helpful questions to ask your mentor.  

Find the root cause of your challenges by following the 5Whys technique for each of them. An example of how to use this technique:

Example:

The vehicle will not start. (the problem)

1. Why? – The battery is dead. (First why)
2. Why? – The alternator is not functioning. (Second why)
3. Why? – The alternator belt has broken. (Third why)
4. Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced. (Fourth why)
5. Why? – The vehicle was not maintained according to the recommended service schedule. (Fifth why, a root cause)

Write down all the questions you have about how to face your challenges.

3. Do your research!

Now that you’ve got a clear idea about the challenge that you’d like help with, be sure to conduct extensive research to learn whether someone else has faced this same problem. Your CEC mentor will expect you to join the session having read all of the information that is publically available to help tackle the problem. We encourage to try a few of these solutions and learn from the results.

 

Application tip: There is a question in the application that asks about what you’ve done to date to tackle the problem – don’t leave it blank.

4. Know how your mentor can help

Think through at least 3 specific questions that you’d like your mentor to answer during the session. The best questions are ones that cannot be answered by any other source. To check this, do a quick google search for your questions and make sure they are not answered by any of the top results.

 

Application tip:  You would need to add the name of your preferred CEC Mentors in the application. Consider what sort of expertise would be most helpful in addressing your challenge and find the CEC Mentor that has a matching background for your challenges, then add their name to the application.

 

 

MENTEE TESTIMONIALS