Thanks for considering me as mentor for your thesis, however think twice! I am terrible and I will always ask you to do more no matter how good you will be or how hard you will work! 😉
Now we got that out of the way, we can talk more seriously. I am honored and humbled by this request I will be happy to support you in the last mile of your journey towards your graduation.
Before we continue further and discuss the topic of your thesis, I would like to share our “rules of engagement” that will be in place as long as I will be mentoring you:
- (i) “School is over“: you are the master of your time. I am not going to push you or remind you of what you have to do in any way. You know your deadlines and you will organize yourself accordingly. If you want, we will discuss your time table but you will be in charge in deciding when we are going to have the next meeting and what we will discuss.
- (ii) “You are not allowed to be blocked“: at any moment, if you feel stuck for any reason, just get in contact with me and we will find the best way to proceed.
- (iii) “In any case and any circumstance, I will never do your thesis for you but I will remove every possible obstacle for you to succeed”. This is exactly how it reads; do not ask me to do your thesis. I already have a master degree and I am not interested in having a new one. Share with me your problems and your difficulties and I will help you in solving them.
- (iv) “I am going to be your worst enemy and your best ally“: I will always challenge what you will be doing in order to help you in making it better. I will do that until the very last moment of your final submission. However, once the thesis will be submitted I will become “your lawyer” and I will advocate for the maximum grade that you can possibly get.
These are the rules that will guide our relationship until the end of the thesis. If you are motivated and you are looking for a good grade, your thesis will have a good chance to be in nomination for the best thesis award (track record available upon request 😉 ). I will be happy to be the mentor for your thesis and I am committed to do my part if you will do yours. However, please think careful at the “rule of engagements” and if you are willing to accept them. In the case they do not resonate with you, just talk to the thesis coordinator and ask for another supervisor. This will save time to both of us.
If you want to move forward with me, during our first meeting be ready to answer the following questions:
- Why you are proposing this particular topic?
- What do you expect from this thesis?
- What are your plans after the graduation? Are you interested in academia, industry or start-up? See this post that explains how to take the most from your thesis.
If after reading this you are still motivated in having me as the mentor for your thesis drop me a line when you are ready for scheduling an appointment.
This article ( Mentor for Your Thesis ) is part of the miniseries on how to do a good thesis, you can see the full list of post at the following links:
