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Networking and Mentoring
A very important topic today – building your network and finding a mentor or mentors.
It’s not what you know, it is WHO you know!!!
Networking: Interacting with other people to share information, develop contacts and learn more about life.
You really have been networking all your life. You have friends. You might talk music, shopping, sports, politics, weather and other topics.
Networking for professional reasons is similar. You need to develop relationships with people that are interesting to you – and could be helpful to you in the future. As a professor, one of the favorite things that I did was to network with other professionals. That networking got me into professional organizations. That networking got me to be chair of an international conference (four times), helped me have the confidence to be a program evaluator for a major accrediting group, helped me apply for a Fulbright exchange visit.
And … on the other hand, I have given back to my students by networking with them – talking about jobs, about internships, about careers and just being a friend. (We all need friends!!)
So, who should you befriend and network with?
Think of where you see yourself – through your goals,
attitude and analysis. Do you want to be
a software developer? Then find software
developers to network with. Does that
mean NOT to network with accountants or artists or novelists? Not at all.
Guess what – those accountants or artists or novelists probably are
friends with software developers and can help you make the connection to
software developers.
Consider network platforms. I’m connected to well over 3,000 people on LinkedIn. I’ll admit I should use LinkedIn better for networking. On Facebook, I’m connected to over 1,400 people. I message top friends frequently. When I wrote my first ebook, I used Facebook Messenger to let my network know. And … they also let me know about their activities and accomplishments. I also use email to connect with friends – and to introduce friend-1 with friend-2 – so my network expands as well.
Make new network connections by being a friend. If you are looking at a career or job change, see if you can shadow somebody in that new field. Most people would be honored to show you around their workplace (but … not all can for security or other reasons). Be open and honest. Don’t just ‘use’ people to get a head but ‘befriend’ them.
What to do with networks?
If you had a great friend and never saw that friend, never communicated with that friend – would that really be a great friend?
You need to keep in touch with your friends and network. If you are in the same area, share a cup of coffee (or beer or wine or soft drink) occasionally. “Do Lunch” sometimes. If you are not physically near, drop an email note – or Facebook or other messaging platform. When LinkedIn tells me that one of my contacts has been promoted or taking a new position, I like to drop them a LinkedIn message to congratulate them. I also like recommending or highlighting their skills on LinkedIn. Don’t burn bridges – and keep your network strong. Yes, it will take time – but it is time well spent.
Ask them to help you. If you are thinking of a career or job change, drop your most valued network contacts a note to get their input. Really, you are turning a network contact into a mentor.
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.
Example 4: Eric was a poor student. He was majoring in business because his father was a businessman and told (commanded?) Eric to go into business. But his heart wasn’t in being a business major. Unfortunately (but really fortunately), he got into a motorcycle accident and ended in a hospital for broken bones. But that experience woke Eric up. He started to ask the nurses and hospital staff about their jobs, and eventually went back to school (he had a hard road of cleaning up the poor grades) and became an excellent nurse.
I do have many more mentoring success stories.
Have you been to college? Go back and find one of your professors that was the most important to you and with whom you have great rapport. Talk to them about careers. Experienced professors will also be able to help with networking and finding professionals to talk to. 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?
Go out and add 20 people (or more) to your network. Work the network connections.
Then work your network for mentors – somebody who cares for
you and wants to see you successful.
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