What are the most common challenges in an AI mentorship and how can you overcome them?

Pour trouver un mentor, je recommande de commencer par participer activement à des événements du domaine. Utilisez les réseaux sociaux professionnels comme LinkedIn pour identifier des professionnels chevronnés de l'IA et exprimez votre intérêt pour le mentorat. il y a également les communautés en ligne et les forums dédiés à l'IA, où vous pouvez établir des connexions avec des experts du domaine. Soyez clair sur vos objectifs et sur la manière dont le mentorat pourrait bénéficier à votre développement professionnel. En développant un réseau professionnel solide et en exprimant votre motivation, vous augmenterez vos chances de trouver un mentor en IA.

When finding a mentor in AI, keeping their industry experience and context relative to your goals is important. For example, the use cases and approaches for AI projects can be different depending on the industry. For example, responsible AI, explainability, and quantitative mathematical methods are tremendously important in the financial services industry. A mentor from another industry can add value in many ways, but might lack the depth to make them have a deeper impact on your growth in a certain industry.

When it comes to finding the right AI mentor, it's a bit like matching puzzle pieces. You know it's a good fit when you share some mutual connections – it's like having friends in common, making it easier to break the ice and trust each other. Then there's the mentor's background. If they're experts in what you're super curious about, say machine learning or robotics, it's like having a personal guide in a maze, showing you all the cool spots and shortcuts. And, of course, you've got to have similar goals. Imagine both of you geeking out over the same AI challenges and celebrating wins together. It's not just about learning; it's like being on an adventure with someone who's just as excited about it as you are.

In my own experience, taking part in online academic focused courses has exposed me to many suitable mentors within the AI community. Each has their own niche or field of study, which can closely represent your own interests. Many are always interested in being mentors given the quest for lifelong teaching and learning. Whether you want a mentor to help your understanding or whether you want advice on certain business matters, having access to a network of professionals via an online academic course gives you that opportunity.

There are challenges for both mentor and mentee. For a mentor, the biggest challenge is to be sure you are adding value for the mentee. It is easy to assume you are helping a mentee given your own experience and success, but a mentee may not feel the same. For a mentee, you want to maximize the limited time you are likely to have with your mentor. For both mentor and mentee, the challenge can be overcome by clear and continuous communication. Discussing goals for time together with areas of focus plus regularly assessing the experience have consistently led to the best outcomes in my experiences.

Here are some strategies I follow: 1. Regular Communication and Active Actionables: Maintain regular contact while delivering results and clearly communicate your goals and actions. Remember, you are only as good as your work. 2. Appreciation and Curiosity: Show appreciation for your mentor's time. Always be curious and open to explore topics and step out of your comfort zone. 3. Setting Expectations: Mentors can guide and set the path, but it's you who are in the driving seat. 4. Taking Brutal Feedback: I value mentors who give me honest and direct feedback. This prepares you for the worst, which is beneficial because it makes you ready for real-world failures, which are more common than often shared.

In my view great mentors build great relationships. As a mentor build a rapport with your team be getting to know their accomplishments, capabilities and achievements. Also be an active listener.

AI changes very rapidly, so trust, curiosity, and openness are key between mentor and apprentice. In many cases, the mentor will be as lost as you are, so trust will guide both to seek the right approach.

Remember that both mentor and mentee are human beings with all the complexity that entails. A good mentoring relationship is a partnership where the power dynamics are actively balanced. If your mentor can’t let go of power, find another. Honesty and openness is the key. If you don’t understand something, say so. If you don’t like something, say so. A good mentor will respect you and work for your betterment.

Invest time in understanding your mentor’s perspective and share your enthusiasm for AI. Mutual respect and common interests are foundational for a strong mentor-mentee relationship.

The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) method comes in handy. It's like having a GPS for your learning journey. First off, it's all about knowing exactly what you want to learn and why. It's like picking your destination. Maybe you're all about diving deep into machine learning or getting the hang of neural networks. Whatever it is, being clear about it helps a lot. Then, you've got to chop up this big goal into smaller, bite-sized pieces. It's like planning your route with manageable drives and rest stops. Assign deadlines and milestones to these mini-goals – think of them as the must-see landmarks on your trip. Your mentor should be able to help you with setting these time bounded goals pragmatic goals

There are many existing and new tools you can use to track goals, experiment and find which one works for you. Keeping it simple can help you to stay engaged with producing your content.

Use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) criteria to set clear goals. Regularly review these goals with your mentor to ensure you remain aligned and adjust as necessary.

Dont be haste, one step at time is what most people have to fit in their minds. When more you respect the process of learning what you need and master the fundamentals, more easily will be to set the goals to develop something you aiming.

I advocate for establishing clear expectations and goals at the beginning of the mentorship. This includes discussing each person's role, the desired outcomes, and how to approach conflicts should they arise. Regular, open communication is key; encourage a two-way dialogue where both mentor and mentee can express concerns and provide feedback.

Don’t forget that you both are human beings. Some of the best outcomes arise from disagreements as long as respect is maintained. If the clash is over values and principles (which you should established before beginning mentorship) then it is better to bring the relationship to a close.

Establish a framework for addressing conflicts that includes open communication, a willingness to understand each other’s viewpoints, and a commitment to find common ground.

In AI mentorship, I think balancing guided learning with self-initiative is key. While a mentor provides direction and experience, true mastery comes from personal effort. This means engaging in your own research, experimentation, and practical application. Use mentorship for guidance, but drive your learning through active self-exploration and critical questioning. This will ensure a well-rounded understanding and skill development in AI in my opinion.

A mentor is not a teacher. They can guide you and help with confusion but the bulk of the learning exercise is yours. Use your mentor to design a learning pathway towards your end goal and to clarify when you’re not sure of something.

Use mentorship sessions to gain insights into the industry, while dedicating time for self-study to master technical skills and stay updated with the latest AI trends.

Balancing mentorship and self learning is crucial in AI, you can't expect your mentor to teach every basic things or tell you the solutions of every problems. You have to do a lot of hard work and try to solve or learn most of things yourself. Because you cannot except to everything to be at one place or one person to know every thing. Some times you need to do some digging by yourself that's the process which make you standout and help you learning new things fast and solving new problems.

Ideally you will have set exit criteria for the relationship at the start so you will know when the end is reached. If not, or things aren’t going well for you, remember again that you are both human. Talk about it and respectfully be clear on what you want.

In my opinion if AI can represent in multi languages will be a great advantage to grab more people's attention those who has languages barriers .