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Lesson 20 Mentoring 1
A very important
topic today – finding a mentor.
First – what is a mentor?
“A mentor is a person or friend who guides a
less experienced person by building trust and modeling positive behaviors. An
effective mentor understands that his or her role is
to be dependable, engaged, authentic, and tuned into the needs of the mentee.
(taken from: http://www.oycp.com/MentorTraining/3/m3.html
- which is a great resource to check out)
Having a experienced person listen to you; guide you and when
appropriate give suggestions is going to be very valuable to you.
Over the years, I have had many student mentees.
Example 1: Jerry was unsure of his major and direction. We talked frequently and as it got to be time
to register for classes for the next semester, we agreed for him to add a
programming class to his schedule. He
wasn’t sure he wanted to be a programmer or an information systems major. My advice was to try it out, it is one class
and if it doesn’t fit, he could drop the class or finish it and go in another
direction. As it happened, he loved the
class and did extremely well. This lead
to more information systems classes.
Then was the opportunity for an internship. He had some different options. The experience of an internship was going to
be good no matter where he went. He
selected an internship with a major financial company – and now 20 years later
has been promoted several times, has a group working under him and is very
happy.
Example 2: Andrew was also good with information systems and
we talked frequently about careers and direction. He too had many options upon graduation and
took one with a leadership development program which gave him about five
internal positions within the business over a three year period. At the end of that time, he was very valuable
to the company and know the in-and-outs of how the entire company worked from working
in the different departments. He settled
in and was recognized as a valued employee.
Then an opportunity came for him to move within that company to a
different location. We talked about it – moving away from what he knew and
people he knew to a new town, a new boss, and new experiences. It meant selling a house and starting
over. Again, we talked and I listened to
what I was hearing from his heart. He made
the move and is so much happier and in a great position to continue to be
promoted.
Example 3: Lori was an average student. She did well and we talked frequently. Coming from a very close family and a small
town, she just didn’t want to take a position in a large company in a different
state. We found a fantastic internship
with a non-profit organization for her.
She really flourished in that environment and while that non-profit
organization didn’t have an opportunity for her, she found her niche in a
governmental agency and loves what she does – with less stress and more time
with family than she would have had by moving to a neighboring state.
I do have many more mentoring success stories.
The author suggests that the student, even as a freshman,
find a faculty mentor. Talk to them
about careers. Experienced professors
will also be able to help with networking and finding professionals to talk
to.
Take time to talk to all of your professors. Stop by their office to
chat. Ask them why they picked their
particular discipline. Stop to visit at
least monthly. Then narrow your focus to
two that seem to be better able to help you in your career and future. Get to know them more – take them for coffee
(aside, faculty love to go for coffee).
Build your relationship.
Assignment:
- Research mentoring and being a mentee.
- What makes for a good mentor?
- How can you be a good mentee?
- If you are already in college, start working on this. Make an appointment to visit with your professors – even those outside your intended major (with their networks, they will probably know people and opportunities that might be of interest to you.
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