Ways in which respondents would use mentoring
| Total respondents, N (%) | Post-docs, N (%) | PhD students, N (%) | P value | |
| N* | 128 | 86 | 42 | |
| Developing research ideas | 79 (62) | 46 (54) | 33 (79) | <0.01 |
| Career development plan | 69 (54) | 43 (50) | 26 (62) | 0.21 |
| Help with grant writing | 67 (52) | 48 (56) | 19 (45) | 0.26 |
| Insight into career path | 65 (51) | 39 (45) | 26 (62) | 0.08 |
| Access to resources outside of own institution | 65 (51) | 38 (44) | 27 (64) | 0.03 |
| Goal setting | 59 (46) | 38 (44) | 21 (50) | 0.54 |
| Help with networking | 58 (45) | 33 (38) | 25 (60) | 0.02 |
| Mentoring expertise that cannot be found in own institution | 53 (41) | 37 (43) | 16 (38) | 0.60 |
| Advice on when to say no | 44 (34) | 29 (34) | 15 (36) | 0.82 |
| Help with teaching | 40 (31) | 25 (29) | 15 (36) | 0.45 |
| Work/life balance | 39 (31) | 27 (31) | 12 (29) | 0.77 |
| Visit mentor’s lab | 37 (29) | 26 (30) | 11 (26) | 0.64 |
| Advice on time management | 37 (29) | 26 (30) | 11 (26) | 0.64 |
| How to structure research team | 32 (25) | 21 (24) | 11 (26) | 0.82 |
| Help with job search | 30 (23) | 23 (27) | 7 (17) | 0.21 |
| Getting a job at the mentor’s institution | 28 (22) | 17 (20) | 11 (26) | 0.41 |
| Help navigate political situations | 27 (21) | 21 (24) | 6 (14) | 0.19 |
| Advice on switching careers | 23 (18) | 16 (19) | 7 (17) | 0.79 |
| Help with contract negotiations | 20 (16) | 16 (19) | 4 (10) | 0.21† |
| Developing a business plan | 10 (8) | 8 (9) | 2 (5) | 0.30† |
| Advice on hiring staff | 7 (6) | 7 (8) | 0 (0) | 0.06† |
| Advice on setting up solo practice | 3 (2) | 1 (1) | 2 (5) | 0.25† |
Respondents were asked to indicate in what ways they would use mentoring. Multiple responses were allowed. N(%) for each item was calculated. Differences between post-docs and PhD students.
*30 respondents did not answer question regarding ways in which them would use mentoring. The exclusion of these 30 respondents did not significantly change the baseline characteristics of the group.
†p-value from Fisher exact test.