The Career Report
	Volume 1 - Issue 1  - September, 2006
- Sign up for the Career Report For comments, questions or future topic suggestions, contact askmelinda@thepittmangroup.com - Search Jobs - Post Resume - Contact Us Know someone who could benefit from the information in the article? Please forward this report to them.	Finding a Mentor Who’s Right for You (By Melinda Pittman)   There’s nothing quite like the feeling of landing a great job, the job you’ve been searching for, the one that fills you with a sense of excitement and anticipation.  However, that great job also often comes with a sense of trepidation and anxiety, especially if you want to grow within the company ranks in a short amount of time.  That’s why finding a mentor once you join a company is an excellent way to show your commitment to the position while at the same time accelerating the growth of your career.   The good news is that many companies have formal mentoring programs.  That means they will help to pair you with a more experienced employee for the dual purpose of transferring valuable knowledge and acclimating you to the company’s culture.  The ideal time to ask about a company’s policy toward mentoring (i.e., whether or not they have a formal program) is during the interview stage.  This will give you a crystal-clear idea of what to expect once you begin your new position.   Communicate your needs If the company does have a formal program, you won’t have to find a mentor.  One will be assigned to you.  A formal mentoring program, like many employment situations, can be either a positive or negative experience depending upon the specific circumstances involved, but that’s an article for another time.  What if you’ve just started a new position and are seeking a mentor, but the company does not offer a formal program?   Unfortunately, many employees are apprehensive about approaching their new supervisors about being paired with a mentor—or about asking a seasoned veteran to become their mentor.  Instead, they fumble through the early stages of their employment, wasting valuable time and energy, until they come up to speed on their own.  If you’re serious about engaging another person in a meaningful mentoring relationship, make sure that you communicate this to your immediate supervisor.  Share with them your enthusiasm for the endeavor, and emphasize how you believe it will help you to become a more productive worker in a shorter amount of time.   More than likely, your supervisor will share in your enthusiasm, or at the very least, acknowledge how such an arrangement would add to the value you bring to the company.  As a result, they may help you to pair up with a mentor, or they may allow you to seek one out on your own.   A quick checklist After you spend a week or two on the job, you’ll be able to more easily identify those co-workers who have a wealth of knowledge and experience.  You’ll also be able to identify which ones are good candidates for a mentorship.  However, there are other criteria that you may not have considered, which I’ve described below.   They must be a good listener.  Being a good mentor doesn’t mean doing all the talking.  An effective mentor must know as much as they can about you, so that they can help you to succeed in every way possible.  This means they should be familiar your goals, ambitions, personality, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses.  To discover these things, they’ll have to listen as much as they talk.   They must be honest.  Honesty is not only a virtue, it’s a catalyst for progress.  A good mentor has to walk the fine line between encouraging you and admonishing you.  That’s the quickest way for you to achieve professional growth.  But remember, it’s a balance.  You don’t want somebody who brow beats you all the time.   They should have different strengths than you.  A mentor who is skilled in a certain area that you’re not will be able to help you improve in that area.  Engaging in a mentoring relationship shouldn’t reinforce your weaknesses; it should minimize them, eliminate them all together, or ideally, transform them into strengths.   The Most Important Step - Ask Perhaps the most important thing to remember about finding a mentor is that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask.  You might think that you’re bothering the person, but more than likely, they’re going to consider it a compliment that you’ve asked them in the first place.  In addition, people who have experienced a great deal of success and accumulated a wealth of knowledge are usually glad to pass on that knowledge and experience.  After all, it’s rather difficult to become successful unless you know how to deal with people and enjoy dealing with them.   If you have any questions about forming a mentoring relationship or about mentoring programs in general, feel free to contact me at Melinda@thePittmanGroup.com.   BioScience | Informatics | Information Technology
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