How to Find a Career Mentor

Did you know that ninety percent of employees who have a career mentor report being happier in their jobs? 

There are all kinds of benefits to career mentors that could help you when it comes to setting career goals. Whether you’re looking for a mentor to help advance where you’re at now or if you’re looking for a change in career, you could stand to benefit from one.

If you’re looking to know more about career mentors, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll tell you how a career mentor can help you and what your options for mentors are. All you need to do to start helping your career for the better is read on.

What Is a Career Mentor?

A career mentor is part of a specific business designed to help people learn and grow. They work with you on setting career goals and then achieving those goals. Organizations have become very complex, but they can help you to navigate your career path and the best way forward.

Career mentoring has become the best known type of mentoring in the past few years. There used to be many different approaches to business mentoring, all of which are tools that career mentors can use to help you.

The traditional approach focuses on skill development and aims for a direct promotion. However, there are also approaches that focus on company culture or supporting diversity and inclusion measures. There’s even reverse mentoring, where the junior employee is put in the role of the mentor.

Career mentors use all of these and more.

A career mentor is typically at least two levels above you. This means that one of their tasks is to help you grow your network. Forming good work relationships is crucial to career advancement. 

A career mentor’s main job, however, is to help you identify developmental needs. Once they are identified, the career mentor can help you fix these needs by coming up with a plan to address them. Improving these needs – sooner than you would have alone – can help you boost your career.

How a Career Mentor Helps You

You’ve already heard a couple of the ways that a career mentor can help you while hearing what they do. They help you fix your shortcomings and get feedback much easier than you would need to from a direct supervisor. They also help you to network and make connections that would be hard to make on your own.

Another thing your career mentor can help you do is develop your strengths. Your strengths are just as important to know as your weaknesses are, if not more important.

Being able to point at the things that come easily to you is good. A mentor can help you find strengths you might not have even realized. 

Even better, mentors don’t just help you to identify your strengths. They also help you to continue developing those strengths. After all, your strengths only stay that way by working and growing them.

Career mentors are also some of the best people to have difficult conversations with. As they often work outside of your organization, they can give you advice an insider wouldn’t be able to. They provide a unique outlook without having a personal investment in things.

A career mentor can essentially serve as a safe place to voice these thoughts aloud. You won’t be offending anybody or speaking where you’re not supposed to.

Career mentors can also give you advice that you don’t need to have a difficult conversation to get. For example, a career mentor can give you advice on how to negotiate a higher salary. 

The ways a career mentor can help you are practically endless.

How to Find a Career Mentor

The first step to finding a career mentor is deciding if you need one and why. You should consider if one is needed to grow in your career as well as if you would be a good mentee. Not everyone has the patience to learn from someone else.

Next, identify the career goals you have right now. Getting a mentor who works in your industry will allow you to receive specific advice in achieving these goals. In addition, they can help you brainstorm goals that you may not have thought of yet.

Consider the connections you already have. Are you friends with anyone higher up that you would like to be in a similar position to someday? If so, could they be your mentor?

If not, then start preparing a pitch for when you find a career mentor. In this pitch, share your goals and why you think that individual would be able to give you the mentoring you need. Give them a set of expectations and time commitment you want from them as well so they can think it over.

When looking for a mentor, you want someone who is experienced, empathetic, and compatible to you. Finding someone you get along with who can understand you is essential to getting you the career mentoring experience you need.

Learn More Today

Now that you’ve learned how a career mentor can benefit you, you’re able to decide where you want to find one from. In the meantime, why don’t you look at some of our other articles?

We offer all kinds of information, from career information to things that will help boost your happiness. If you’re interested in learning something you might not know yet, then you should give our site a look.

Happy reading, and enjoy learning something new to help your career!