Many successful professionals have been able to develop their own careers mainly because they have found good mentors who support them as they struggle to realize their professional career. The help and influence of a mentor is an important aspect of increasing your ability to achieve your career goals, avoid common mistakes and develop your ability to be self-directed to overcome difficulties and risks during the learning process. Your mentor can even work as a catalyst in helping you land your dream job or help you pursue the right career path in which you are most likely to succeed.
These 5 tips will help you find the right mentors and how to get them to help you develop and promote your career more effectively.
1. Find a mentor with relevant expertise in your career field
Finding a mentor with the right skillset is essential in helping you take the right career path and in better promoting your career. Your best effort is to research professionals in your career industry if you don’t already know someone. It is highly recommended not to settle for just one mentor. Connecting with more than one mentor will help you broaden your own professional career perspective as each mentor has a different mentoring style and strategy.
If you are in the healthcare field and work as a nurse for example, your target mentor should be a senior nurse who has more experience than you. Finding a mentor with experience relevant to your own profession is very important because they have the same role as you in your profession. They have been seasoned with years of similar experience that made them successful and successful in their career field and will continue their strategy of career development to work on your own career similar to theirs as well.
2. Communicate your career goals
Your mentor can do a better job of helping you develop your career more successfully if you clearly state your career goals better. You can ask your mentor to help you work on your weaknesses while building on your strengths. Some may want their mentor to help them work to increase their chances of getting promoted to a higher promotion or for transferring to another organization or company.
Each goal will require a specific strategy that your mentor can help you work on more specifically to achieve your career goals. It’s easier to find the best mentor for you when you know what your career goals are and you’re prepared to communicate them with your mentor so the two of you can work together to achieve them. In line with your career goals, you should look for a mentor who has good qualifications, high credibility in the career industry, is able to empathize with you and is willing to communicate with you more often, especially in discussing your career goals.
3. A mentor has bureaucratic power
While you may know people who make up company management strengths, your mentor will likely know people who have strengths in company management. It will be easier if you have a mentor beside you who has expertise in career politics and bureaucracy in an organization. Politics is commonplace in certain industries and you need someone to help you find the right people who can value your skills and career competence and can make the strong decisions that can give you your biggest career break.
Therefore, when looking for a good mentor, it is very important to look for someone who has extensive network connections and is able to build his own name in the same career field so that he can provide the best strategy in promoting your career accordingly. with your career goals.
4. Learn from practical out of the box knowledge from your mentor
Your learning and theoretical knowledge is most likely limited to the books and materials you studied at school. You may have undergone some training while you are still pursuing your education but your learning and competence will not be enough to further your career. Your mentor has the ability to teach you practical knowledge about your career and their experience is also a valuable source of learning.
To get your mentor to help you promote your career, look for someone who has the ability to teach you a broader range of learning processes that go beyond theoretical knowledge and principles but more about the practical application of your learning in your career field. This will help you better promote your career as your mentor helps you learn to apply your knowledge in practical situations. Try to find a mentor whose mentoring style is not only fixated on books but more focused on out of the box learning experiences that will be very useful in advancing your career.
5. Learn to ask questions of your mentor
If you want your mentor to be successful in helping you promote your career, it is important that you allow yourself to ask questions of your mentor to get the information you need to better improve your performance. Mentors are not psychics who will know everything you need to learn. Asking them questions will allow them to fully understand various aspects of your need for improvement.
A good mentor is one who is able to exercise flexibility when mentoring and is able to meet the unique needs of the mentee. He is someone who is willing to answer questions and inquiries and is able to provide clear and valuable insights to enhance your skills and competences. Your mentor should be focused on helping you achieve your career goals and not his own goals for your career. You are more likely to promote your career when your mentor is flexible, able to listen to your needs and teach you valuable steps in taking the right direction in advancing your career towards professional development.
