🇬🇧 Read this article in English.
How exciting that you've been invited to a matchmaking meeting! The goal of the meeting is to find out if you'd like to be matched. In this article, we'll help you have a fantastic matchmaking meeting.
Before the coordination meeting
First impressions last a long time, so coming prepared for your first meeting with your potential mentor or mentee sets the collaboration off on the right foot. We have three tools that are especially useful for the initial meeting:
Sample Agenda for a Coordination Meeting: Use it as is, make some changes, or go your own way entirely.
Assessment Wheel for the Job Search Process: This provides a good overview of what you need to focus on to help the trainee get closer to a job.
Proposed Cooperation Agreement: The cooperation agreement will not be signed at this time, but it can serve as a guide for defining roles and clarifying expectations.
During the coordination meeting
The matchmaking meeting typically lasts one hour and can take place either in person or online. For tips on where you can meet, see this article. A large part of the matchmaking meeting is about getting to know each other and making sure the chemistry is right. At the same time, it’s important to go beyond “small talk” and find out if you actually have the same expectations for the mentoring program and for each other. To make this happen, it’s important that:
As a mentee, you’ll discuss your career goals in Norway, what you need to achieve them, and how you think a mentor can help you with this.
As a mentor, you are clear about what you think you can help with and what you believe will be important for the collaboration to work.
If you would like someone from Sammen om en jobb to be present for the first five minutes to open the meeting and introduce you, please let your contact person know.
After the coordination meeting
You won't make any decisions during the meeting itself, but after the meeting, you can send us an email and let us know whether or not you'd like to be connected. If we don't hear from you after a day or two, we'll contact you by phone. It's important that you think it over carefully before you respond. Here are two tips we can offer:
Be honest and clear: If you don't think you're a good match, it's much better to speak up now than for us to have to end the connection later.
Be open-minded: It’s hard to find a “perfect match,” and some of the best pairings we make are between mentees and mentors with quite different backgrounds. So be open to the idea that not everything has to be a 100% fit, as long as the chemistry is right.
If you're still unsure whether the connection is correct, please talk to us about it before you make a decision.
Have a nice time!
It's normal to feel a little nervous before a matchmaking meeting, so remember that this isn't a job interview—it's just a friendly chat with someone who wants to help 😊
Have a great networking event!