The Importance of Mentors By: Jun Loayza
Under: Careers, Experienced Hire, Life Coaching, WorkplaceYou just found a job and now it’s Day 1 of the rest of your life. Welcome to the real world. A life of waking up at 6:30 or 7 AM, putting in 8 – 12 hours a day on completing project tasks, and driving unmercifully through tons of traffic filled with other disgruntled drivers. Oh joy! I don’t mean to sound so bleak about your career and life outlook here, but this is a perception (and ultimately perception can become reality) for most people in the “working world”.We focus so much on how to get a job. But what do we do after we get that killer job? Am I doomed to live in this dreadful “working world”? How do I succeed in this position? What’s my career path? What are my goals? Is this job helping me get there?
If you could change your perception and transition yourself from the “working” to a “career world”, or better yet an FD World, would you want to find out how?
I’m glad you said yes! This is the first of our blog series focusing on what to do AFTER you have found a j-o-b.
Mentor Me!
Find a mentor. The easiest way to define a career path is to find someone in a position that you want to see yourself move into. Once you’ve found that person it’s essential you understand what it took for them to get to where they are. Here are some of the things you want to find out:
- What skills did they pick up along the way?
- Who is supporting them internally and externally?
- What roles and projects did they take on?
- Did they go above and beyond what was asked of them?
- What type of feedback did they get for their performance?
- How do they handle themselves in front of their management and peers?
- How do they handle themselves externally to customers and clients?
Do your homework before you just start on the path of the daily grind. Be proactive. Nothing is more proactive then asking these questions to that person in the position you want. If you’re not in a position to do so, be creative/proactive in finding out those answers.
Mentor (a definition I found on the web): Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.
Take that definition to heart. You’re not complete by any means. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of others if we don’t have to. Use the answers to those questions above and start introspecting. Ask yourself:
- How do I pick up those skills?
- If I work hard, how do I get noticed internally and externally?
- What roles and projects can I take on?
- What is it going to take to go above and beyond what is asked of me?
- How do I get the best feedback I can possibly get?
- How do I compare to my mentor and what do I need to do to reach that point (or even excel past my mentor)?
It might take some time for you to figure all of this out but hopefully you will have built a relationship with this mentor to help coach you. Don’t just limit yourself to one mentor either. You can have as many as you want!
“Successful people turn everyone who can help them into sometime mentors!” ~ John Crosby
Just like a Nintendo game, let’s press the restart button.
Now you’re in. It’s Day 1 all over again. This time you’re not waiting until the clock hits 5 or 6 PM. You’ve got an idea of where you want to go and how to do it. Welcome to first day of your career.
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