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become a career mentor for young people
What is headspace Career Mentoring?
As a headspace Career Mentor, you will mentor young people, aged 18-25, to further their career journeys and provide valuable workplace insights.
This volunteer-based opportunity enables working professionals to make a difference by building the knowledge and confidence of young people. As their mentor, you will guide your young person (mentee) to reach their career goals – whether they are job seeking, preparing applications, building interview skills, networking, understanding employer expectations, and more.
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Up to six months For each mentorship, meet fortnightly for an hour |
All online The entire program is delivered via video meetings |
Training and support Receive mentoring training plus ongoing support |
Why volunteer as a headspace Career Mentor?
By volunteering as a headspace Career Mentor, you can play an important role in supporting the career outcomes for young people and positively impact their mental health. You can help a young person foster important life skills like communication, problem solving and decision making by sharing career insights, knowledge and industry skills.
Of the surveyed mentors who participated in the program:
- 100% of mentors gained new skills and knowledge
- 81% of mentors applied the new skills and knowledge in their day-to-day work
- 98% of mentors increased their professional satisfaction
You will build on your leadership skills, learn from the next generation, receive headspace-developed mentoring training, grow your knowledge on how to have supportive conversations and make a real difference to the life of a young person.
How do I become a headspace Career Mentor?
1. Eligibility and selection criteria
This opportunity is a competitive process and all applications will be evaluated per the selection criteria outlined in the position description.
In addition to the selection criteria, you will need to:
- Be an established professional, with at least four years of strong experience in your chosen field. Although no specific level of education is required, students or those on placement are not eligible for this opportunity.
- Be passionate and motivated, with a focus on providing career support for your designated young person. Please note that this mentoring opportunity is not a mental health peer support role.
- Be available to commit for up to 6 months for regular catchups with a mentee, plus training sessions.
- Be based in and have the right to live and work in Australia.
- Be willing to have a Working with Children Check (or state/territory equivalent) and police check (costs will be covered by headspace).
2. Recruitment and application process
Our mentor recruitment periods for 2025 are:
- Recruitment: June/July
- Interviews: 30 June - 18 July.
- Training for successful applicants: 14 August.
- Recruitment: August/September.
- Interviews: 29 September - 10 October.
- Training for successful applicants: 6 November.
Please note that the process to becoming a headspace Career Mentor takes time. To ensure we provide a safe and supportive environment for both mentors and young people, the recruitment process involves online interviews, vigorous background checks and reference checks.
If you're interested in becoming a headspace Career Mentor, there are two pathways to get involved in the program:
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Are you an individual volunteer? |
Are you a corporation or organisation? |
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Become a Career Mentor |
Become a Partner to access volunteer opportunities for your staff |
3. Training and ongoing support
Once you are accepted as a headspace Career Mentor, you will complete approximately ten hours of training. This consists of a full day training session online with other accepted mentors, as well as three hours of pre-work to review prior to the training session.
Our training is facilitated by the headspace Career Mentoring team and clinicians to build your mental health literacy, grow your mentoring skills, and equip you with tools to have supportive conversations.
In addition, the headspace Career Mentoring team provides ongoing support such as:
- Regular check-ins to see how your experience is going and to provide extra support if needed
- Resources and session guides to help structure your mentor/mentee relationship including access to a central mentor hub with articles, updates and best practice guides
- Helping you to access and manage the online mentoring platform
- Hosting professional development opportunities for you to learn from and connect with other mentors and the headspace team
4. Match with a mentee
Your mentee will be aged 18-25 and will currently be engaged in employment or study, or actively seeking these opportunities.
The matching process is carefully considered. Mentors and mentees are matched using the Mentorloop platform, which takes skills, experience, interests and the young person’s career goals into account. In addition, the headspace Career Mentoring team personally review each match to ensure a good fit for both individuals.
The more information that you can share with us throughout the recruitment process, the better. This will allow us to match you appropriately with a young person, maximising the chance of success of your mentoring relationship.
We will contact you when a young person has accepted the match. As their mentor, you will coordinate the first online session with your mentee.
5. Meeting your mentee
Once you've successfully organised and met with your mentee in your first session, they are expected to be accountable and proactive in communicating and arranging future sessions with you.
Generally, you will meet with your mentee for one hour per fortnight, for up to 6 months (12 hours in total). However, the amount of time and the regularity of these sessions is dependent on the young person's goals.
You can only mentor one young person at a time. However, if you loved your experience, you are encouraged to continue participation in the program and be re-matched with another young person – although this isn’t a requirement.
Frequently asked questions
We use a program called Mentorloop to connect you with a mentee. Your video calls take place via Zoom, which is integrated with Mentorloop. You will need to use your personal or organisation’s Zoom account to facilitate your sessions and integrate with the Mentorloop platform. We will provide you with support and instructions for this.
It’s completely normal if the connection doesn’t feel immediate. Building trust and rapport takes time. As their mentor, start by being open and finding common ground with what you want to achieve in these sessions. If challenges persist and your mentee doesn’t stay engaged, reach out to the headspace Career Mentoring team. The goal is to create a supportive and productive relationship, and sometimes that means reassessing the match or adjusting expectations.
A mentoring relationship is a two-way street, so it is important that both mentor and mentee contribute actively. The training in collaboration with your experience will help guide your relationship with your mentee. You will be prepped in advance to build your mental health literacy, grow your mentoring skills, and equip you with tools to have supportive conversations.
In addition, your mentee will be prepped to behave in a professional manner to build a strong and productive working relationship.
Prior to being matched with you, we ask that our mentees:
- Reflect on what they want to achieve, what kind of support they are looking for and prepare before each session
- Openly communicate and be responsible for scheduling their mentoring sessions
- Show respect and maintain appropriate boundaries
- Raise any concerns with the headspace Career Mentoring team
Your relationship will be built on trust and evolve as the sessions progress.
headspace Career Mentoring is for young people who are aged 18-25, live in Australia and are looking to kickstart their careers.
Young people who seek our service often find us through our social media, by proactively searching for career mentoring support, or are directly referred to us through Work & Study Online Support.
We work with the young person to confirm that headspace Career Mentoring is the appropriate program for them. This can include ensuring they are well-supported with their mental health (if required), that they have clear vocational goals to work on with their mentor, and that they can commit to up to 6 months of online mentorship.
If you are a young person, or know a young person who may be interested, you can visit headspace Career Mentoring for more information and to book an appointment.