ESSENTIAL QUICK READ


Having a mentor can be a really rewarding professional development experience, for both you and your mentor.  A mentor is able to provide you with valuable insight into how your career is progressing.  They are also able to widen your understanding of a particular sector or industry as you learn from their experience and background.  Sometimes you will be fortunate to qualify for structured mentoring programmes through your education, your employment or your community but there are also many ways of organising a mentor by yourself.  Here are our top tips for finding and keeping a mentor.

Target the right mentor
Ask yourself what you want to achieve by having a mentor.  Is it to broaden your contacts within a particular industry? Is it to find out more about a particular sub-speciality of the business? Perhaps you also want to learn more about a particular skill which they specialise in? All of these are valid reasons to seek a mentor so invest some time in identifying the best person. As well as using your existing networks, there may be other local, national or regional groups, websites or events which can help you to source mentors, such as Startup Weekends, which provide opportunities for future start-up entrepreneurs to meet up with potential mentors at events around the world.

Understand their role
A mentor is there essentially to give you feedback on your professional development journey. They might do so by sharing their own experiences, both positive and negative.  They might encourage you to try new things as well as alert you to potential challenges ahead.  Crucially, it’s a learning experience, both for you and them so be open to how they might support you in a range of ways. Remember that mentoring isn’t about the mentor finding and then offering you a particular job.  By being clear on your expectations your more likely to benefit from your mentoring experience.

Get the tone right
Sometimes a mentoring relationship might be reasonably formal.  For example, the organisation you are part of may have an internal mentoring scheme where you are matched with a more senior employee or an alumnus.  Alternatively, you may have a much more informal mentoring relationship with an experienced professional whereby you meet them for occasional discussions over a coffee.  You may not even actually describe this person officially as a ‘mentor’ but that is what they are! Both of these types of mentoring can be really rewarding and you may indeed have both sorts of mentors who offer you different sorts of support and insights.

Harness technology
Many mentors are more experienced practitioners in their respective field and so they often have very busy schedules. This means they may only have limited time to offer you as their mentee, particularly for face to face meetings, either at their business premise or somewhere outside of work.  If that is the case then virtual meetings, via Skype, for example, can be incredibly useful, as can telephone calls.  This also means you are able to have mentoring relationships with professionals who might even be based overseas.  Why not try searching on LinkedIn, for example, for potential international contacts in your chosen sector whom you might approach as potential mentors?

Remember to give back
Successful mentoring is often a long term persona development relationship. It may be that whilst you start as a mentee, as your own career grows you will also be approached by a more junior member of staff asking you to be their mentor.  Indeed, within the tech sector, there are many examples of what is sometimes described as ‘reverse-mentoring’ where young IT-savvy team members are sharing their own relevant knowledge and skills with more senior, less digitally literate co-workers.  Be open to opportunities when you can share your own knowledge and insights with others as that can also be great for your own career development going forward.

Queen Mary University of London offers a range of mentoring programmes so check with your School, take a look at QMentoring and join The Queen Mary Alumni Network.

Last modified: Tuesday, 1 December 2020, 5:59 PM