Mentoring for Employment Success

A 2015 study by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at Mississippi State compared employment outcomes for recent college graduates who were mentored by blind and visually impaired professionals and a control group of graduates who were not mentored. The study found that students who worked with a mentor for one year increased their assertiveness in job hunting, increased job-seeking self-efficacy and career adaptability, and spent fewer hours in their job search. While in-person mentoring was a goal of the program, findings indicated that distance mentoring was just as effective. About the RRTC mentoring project. As a result of the study, MSS RRTC produced an Employment Mentoring Manual, a guide to starting and running a mentoring program.