{"id":1509,"date":"2026-06-03T13:26:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:34:24","slug":"mentoring-the-other-half-of-science-and-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/2026\/06\/mentoring-the-other-half-of-science-and-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring: the other half of \u2018Science and Art\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Words\"<\/a>
Photo by Gilles Roux on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In English further down.<\/p>\n

Mentorskap: den andra halvan av \u201cVetenskap och konst\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n

N\u00e4r jag ser tillbaka p\u00e5 min tidigare anst\u00e4llning och min nuvarande akademiska karri\u00e4r t\u00e4nker jag ofta p\u00e5 de personer som gav mig v\u00e4gledning i b\u00e5de stora och sm\u00e5 fr\u00e5gor. Mitt f\u00f6rsta ingenj\u00f6rsjobb innebar en form av co-op-utbildning, d\u00e4r jag v\u00e4xlade mellan arbete och studier under min grundutbildning i maskinteknik. Jag placerades p\u00e5 en stor f\u00f6rsvarsentrepren\u00f6r i USA. N\u00e4r jag var p\u00e5 jobbet var jag inte s\u00e5 sugen p\u00e5 att be om r\u00e5d \u2013 jag ville visa att jag visste vad jag gjorde. (Haha, jag var verkligen gr\u00f6n och oerfaren p\u00e5 den tiden!). Som gr\u00f6n uppskattade jag verkligen oombedda r\u00e5d fr\u00e5n v\u00e4nligt inst\u00e4llda ingenj\u00f6rer, om allt fr\u00e5n kontorsetikett (l\u00e4s inte tidningen under arbetstid om du inte har n\u00e5got att g\u00f6ra \u2013 pinsamt!) till detaljer i vibrationsmodellering av konstruktioner (undrar om uttrycket \u201cvoodoo engineering\u201d fortfarande anv\u00e4nds?). Jag f\u00f6rs\u00f6kte \u00e4nd\u00e5 mest klara mig sj\u00e4lv under forskarutbildningen och i b\u00f6rjan av min postdoc- och akademiska karri\u00e4r.<\/p>\n

Situationen b\u00f6rjade f\u00f6r\u00e4ndras n\u00e4r jag fick ansvar som programansvarig f\u00f6r ett masterprogram. Jag b\u00f6rjade st\u00e4lla fr\u00e5gor fr\u00e5n olika kollegor jag m\u00f6tte i arbetet med liknande roller. Det ledde till att jag gjorde mer generella f\u00f6rfr\u00e5gningar till n\u00e5gra personer som jag hade f\u00f6rtroende f\u00f6r. Senare hade jag turen att hitta fler kollegor som jag kunde v\u00e4nda mig till f\u00f6r st\u00f6d i min roll som avdelningschef och i efterf\u00f6ljande uppdrag. Att kunna prata med en erfaren och klok kollega som f\u00f6rstod situationen, men som inte n\u00f6dv\u00e4ndigtvis var direkt involverad i den, gav b\u00e5de l\u00e4ttnad och framtidstro.<\/p>\n

F\u00f6r ungef\u00e4r fem \u00e5r sedan blev jag inbjuden att delta i STHLM Mentor Program<\/a>, i rollen som mentor. Den adept (det vill s\u00e4ga den som skulle f\u00e5 mentorskap) som jag matchades med var prefekt och en erfaren l\u00e4rare vid ett n\u00e4rliggande universitet.<\/p>\n

\u201dVa, jag \u2013 mentor \u00e5t en prefekt?!\u201d f\u00f6rmedlade jag till organisat\u00f6rerna. Jag fick besked om att matchningen var avsiktlig. Det visade sig att de hade r\u00e4tt: jag kunde ge konkreta r\u00e5d till min kollega, och tr\u00e4ffarna var mycket givande. Jag blev tillfr\u00e5gad att delta i programmet igen 2025. Den h\u00e4r g\u00e5ngen var uppl\u00e4gget liknande. Jag var mentor \u2013 med skillnaden att min adept var en administrat\u00f6r (en mycket erfaren s\u00e5dan) och inte l\u00e4rare. \u00c4ven d\u00e5 undrade jag om jag verkligen var kvalificerad att vara mentor, och \u00e5terigen fick jag bekr\u00e4ftelse p\u00e5 att s\u00e5 var fallet. (N\u00e5gon som h\u00f6rt talas om impostor syndrome?) Min nya adept och jag hade flera bra m\u00f6ten. I b\u00e5da fallen var det givande att kunna g\u00f6ra skillnad genom att lyssna p\u00e5 en kollega och tillsammans resonera kring olika scenarier och alternativ. Erfarenheten st\u00e4rkte mitt sj\u00e4lvf\u00f6rtroende och har varit till hj\u00e4lp i mitt dagliga arbete.<\/p>\n

P\u00e5 senare tid har vi bett seniora l\u00e4rare vid ITM (docenter och professorer) att avs\u00e4tta tid f\u00f6r att vara mentorer inom KTH:s karri\u00e4rutvecklingsprogram f\u00f6r bitr\u00e4dande lektorer, Partners in Learning (PIL)<\/a>. Tack till alla kollegor som anm\u00e4lt sig som mentorer! Om fler f\u00f6rfr\u00e5gningar uppst\u00e5r hoppas jag att ni vill \u00f6verv\u00e4ga dem. Och om du sj\u00e4lv beh\u00f6ver mentorskap \u2013 h\u00f6r g\u00e4rna av dig till mig s\u00e5 ser jag vad vi kan g\u00f6ra. Det \u00e4r inte alltid l\u00e4tt att hitta tid i en fullsp\u00e4ckad kalender, men tro mig: oavsett om du \u00e4r adept eller mentor kommer insatsen att l\u00f6na sig.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\/Andrew Martin, ansvarig f\u00f6r fakultetsf\u00f6rnylse (FFA) vid ITM-skolan<\/p>\n

Mentoring: the other half of \u2018Science and Art\u2019<\/h2>\n

When I reflect on my previous employment and current academic career, I often think of those persons who provided me with guidance on issues large and small. My first engineering job involved cooperative education, alternating between work and study in my undergrad mechanical engineering program. I was placed at a major defense contractor in the US. When at work I was reluctant to ask for advice as I wanted to show that I knew what I was doing. (Ha ha, I was truly green with inexperience in those days!) Back then unsolicited advice from sympathetic engineers was really appreciated, covering subjects from office etiquette (don\u2019t read the newspaper during working hours if you have nothing to do \u2013 embarrassing!) to the ins and outs of vibration modeling in structures (I wonder if the term \u2018voodoo engineering\u2019 still exists?). I still was mostly trying to figure things out on my own throughout graduate school and in my early days of postdoc and academic career.<\/p>\n

The situation started to change when I was given responsibility as MSc programme manager. I started to ask questions from various colleagues in parallel positions that I met while handling various tasks. This led me to make more general inquiries from a few such individuals that I trusted. Later I was fortunate to find other colleagues who I could turn to for support in my role as division head and subsequent appointments. To be able to talk to an experienced and sensible colleague who understood a given situation, but was not necessarily invested in it, provided relief and optimism.<\/p>\n

About five years ago I was invited to join the STHLM Mentor Program<\/a>, playing the role as mentor. The adept (i.e. person to be mentored) I was paired with was a department head and experienced faculty member at a nearby university.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat, me mentoring a department head?!\u201d I relayed to the organizers. I received confirmation that the placement was intentional. It turned out that they were right: I was able to provide concrete guidance to my colleague, and the sessions were highly rewarding. I was asked to join this program a second time in 2025. Here the placement was similar, with me serving as a mentor, with the difference that my adept was an administrator (very experienced one at that) and not faculty. Again, I wondered if was qualified to mentor, and I again received confirmation that this was the case. (Anyone heard of impostor syndrome?!). My new adept and I had some fine meetings. In both cases it was rewarding that I could make a difference by listening to a colleague and working through various scenarios and alternatives. The experience was a confidence booster and has been of help in my everyday work.<\/p>\n

We recently asked ITM\u2019s senior faculty (associate professors and professors) to set aside time to mentor within KTH\u2019s career development program for assistant professors, Partners in Learning (PIL)<\/a>. Thanks to those colleagues who offered to join as mentors! If other requests arise, I hope you\u2019ll give them a thought. And if you are in need of mentoring, feel free to contact me, I will see what can be done. It\u2019s not easy setting aside time in your busy schedule, but trust me, whether you are an adept or mentor, the effort will pay off.<\/p>\n

\/Andrew Martin, Head of Faculty Renewal (FFA) at the ITM School<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In English further down. Mentorskap: den andra halvan av \u201cVetenskap och konst\u201d N\u00e4r jag ser tillbaka p\u00e5 min tidigare anst\u00e4llning och min nuvarande akademiska karri\u00e4r t\u00e4nker jag ofta p\u00e5 de personer som gav mig v\u00e4gledning i b\u00e5de stora och sm\u00e5 fr\u00e5gor. Mitt f\u00f6rsta ingenj\u00f6rsjobb innebar en form av co-op-utbildning, d\u00e4r jag v\u00e4xlade mellan arbete och […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1504,"featured_media":1514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-andrew-martin","category-head-of-faculty-renewal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/files\/2026\/06\/gilles-roux-DSuQmFV3SD0-unsplash_16-9.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6P3xp-ol","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1504"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1511,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}