Career Accelerator - My experience as a Mentor, for my mentee 'D'

Hey! Today I thought I would write a spontaneous LinkedIn article around mentoring that I did earlier this year with the Career Accelerator programme! For obvious reasons I will only be referring to my mentee as 'D' and not sharing any personal information, as this is more of an inspirational post for those who are studying at school, college or University and are thinking about next steps.

1st session - In this first session of mentoring, I realised that my mentee was very creative and also very intellectual and that he enjoyed doing extra curricular projects off his own back, including creating a generator which allowed him to create unique questions similar to that of past papers, he was involved in creating a server for his school meaning that multiple platforms could be linked together and was also given the opportunity to visit a school in India to give the students advice on the different career paths they wanted to go on. From speaking to my mentee, he explained that he was confused about the different career options for himself and debated whether he should do an internship, go to University or travel for a year and see where his head was at when he came back.

The first exercise that we did was the 'flower exercise' which was simply for my mentee 'D' to think about the skills and attributes that he has (almost like a Sims character) and how he could use those chosen skills in a future role. He was often told that he's a creative and he 'couldn't be smart', but I explained to him that by having skills and using them in a creative role, is just the same as having skills and using them in any other role...they would just be applied differently depending on the responsibilites at hand. I went on to explain the importance of using LinkedIn to document any work experiences, projects and events that he is part of / attends, as this can help build his professional portfolio and make him come across more interesting to employers in the future. I added 'That's one good thing about having me as a mentor, I'll make your LinkedIn look good!'

In 3 years time, he explained that he wants to have completed his A Levels and receive confirmation for an offer at a Russell Group University as they have the best computer science and engineering programmes. When speaking about jobs, I did explain to 'D' that he needed to think about the size of the company, and that he's only a small piece, but for him, he's gaining experience and making money which will get him on the job ladder. I also went on to explain that it may be difficult for his year group to find any suitable work experiences or jobs, but to try and turn some of the fun things he does into actual experiences that can help him get a job - such as drawing, animal sitting/walking, coding, as there is always a need for these types of early skills.

We briefly discussed University and what happens when you do head off to do a 3 or 4 year course away from home. I told 'D' about the importance of networking at University, and that it was one of the things I forced myself to do in order to gain confidence, and he replied by saying; 'I won't approach someone unless they approach me first' which is something I could relate to back in 2017, but a lot less relatable for me in 2022 as I will sometimes have the confidence to go and speak to someone I don't know, and break out of my comfort zone. I did explain the highs and lows of University including the ways in which you can meet people more organically, such as nights out, societies, being added to social media groups on Facebook or WhatsApp where first year students can meet one another from different courses and also the ability to create your own schedule for working, revising and meeting friends without worrying about home life at the same time.

After University, the aim is to try and find a job as soon as you can in the industry you are most interested in working in, making yourself an asset to everyone that you meet on the way up to your most successful point. I explained to my mentee that it's important to understand that a lot of companies will reject you for not having 'experience', but seeing it as a good thing as something better might be round the corner, and not only being the employee that a company chooses to hire from an interview because they see potential in you, but also, if a company is hit with a redundancy process or any organisational changes, that you are one of the ones they would not let go. Examples of this were things such as being involved with internal projects, making connections with CEO's, leaders and managers to show that you're engaged with those in authorititive roles, engaging in meetings and discussions by having your camera on or asking questions and offering support and assistance to those who might need extra guidance with work.

2nd session - We got onto the topic of remote working, and my mentee explained that he would be open to having shorter working weeks from the office, and that it is still important to have your own space, but also communication and socialisation with those that you work with is also just as important, to ensure that working relationships are not affected. I explained to my mentee that as I was growing older, the projects I was being involved with also become more 'niche', no side hustles or side projects, but more things like panels, networking events or LinkedIn talks where I would think 'I could actually get a job out of doing that' and that 'I could actually inspire somebody with something I've said today'.

3rd session - In this final session, one of the first things I tackled was the biggest transitions from Secondary School to University, as your entire friendship group changes and you learn who your true friends are by seeing who stays in contact. In addition, you also realise what you want to do, by trying things at least once, and knowing it's not what you want to do again. I spoke about having a supportive group around you, whether that be family, friends, other students or employability professionals, so that you can be guided in the right direction, with you making all the big decisions for yourself. I discussed job goals with 'D' and he answered 4 questions that would determine where he would want to go; the Purpose of the job, the Skills needed, the average Pay and the Location of the role, which are things I've advised him to think out and make notes on as he gets older. It will be interesting to see where this extra knowledge will take him in the future!

My final comment to my mentee was that; 'The aim of these mentoring sessions is not for me to say 'do that do that', but to see who you are, what you're interested in, and from my point of view, my experiences and the connections I have, see how I can try and get you there'.

For those of you who got down to the bottom of this post, thanks for reading! I am always around to speak to people if they have any questions regarding anything - just send me a LinkedIn message and I'll try and get back to you when I can!

I'll be back soon,

Brandon