A mentee’s guide to finding your mentor

A lot of the posts on this month’s mentor series talks and #thankyourmentor are about what they’ve learnt from their mentor but I wanted to highlight precisely who these mentors really are. Let’s begin with the definition of what a mentor truly is: “An experienced and trusted adviser”. Most of my generation either don’t have mentors or aren’t aware of the untapped resources that are right at our fingertips. I’ve had a few mentors (yes plural) in my early career so far and each one of them has taught me an abundance of values, skills and industry insights. We have agreed, disagreed, laughed, cried and experienced a whole string of other emotions but those endless discussions are the ones that have formed a strong mentoring bond that I hope will last a lifetime. Most of them have come about organically from working relationships or networking events and they have been integral in helping me to progress in my career. Here they are and here is what I’ve learnt from them so far: 

The Original

To me this mentor is probably the most obvious one, the mentor that has guided me from the cradle to a professional woman and that person is my mother. After all the values engrained in us are the ones that we have learnt at home from a young age. She has been the mentor that congratulates me when I’ve done well, but will help me recognise when I am wrong. She will not tell me what I want to hear but she will tell me what she thinks I should hear. She is my toughest critic and my biggest admirer. There will be someone in your family who will guide and support you the way my mother has done to me, be it your honest sibling that speaks their mind or your strict uncle that expects only the best from you. There are times when their words will be tough or that you don’t necessarily want to hear it but these are the words that will shape you and prepare you for the start of your career.

The Experienced

I met Reg Brown at The Brokerage Citylink award ceremony when I was presented with City Of London Business Trainee, in 2009. This mentor had over 50 years within the insurance industry and I had briefly spoken to him. The following year we met again at the same event where this time I was giving a speech on how winning the award had impacted me in the last year. We spoke again and he gave me his business card, which led to us meeting regularly every 3-4 months. I speak to him about my aspirations, the career path I want to pursue and what has changed since the last time we spoke. In doing so it is more a conversation rather than advice as he queries my decisions and makes me think about my long term aims. This mentor’s role to me is all about having someone to bounce my ideas off, saying out loud what I’m thinking which in turn helps me define my goals and ambitions. 

The Future

I think a lot of people will resonate with this mentor and that for me was my first manager, Leire Jimenez. The reason I named this mentor ‘the future’ is because it’s the same person I still look up to from the first job I ever did and she is still the person who inspires me to strive for the top just as she has. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful first manager and someone who I greatly admire and respect. She had confidence in my capabilities and despite me only having just turned eighteen at the time, she trusted me with a great deal of responsibilities. What I enjoyed most about this mentorship was that we both learnt a lot from each other and it was very much a two-way relationship. The key element with the success of this mentorship was the underlying cardinal rule of having complete transparency and honesty with each other, which made for a challenging yet rewarding working environment.

The Influencer

There is an incredibly long list of these mentors, they are the influential people that have had incredibly successful careers and are fortunate to be in privileged positions. I don’t know them in person (I hope to meet some one day), but I have read articles about them or written by them, watched their videos and follow their achievements. Through what they write they inspire, they lead and they share their knowledge and through that we can learn. Now with various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, TEDtalks and LinkedIn Pulse we are able to gain priceless information and top tips from world leaders such as Facebook CEO, Sheryl Sandberg’s: Why we have too few women leaders and top entrepreneur Richard Branson’s best advice, to name a few. There is absolutely no reason not to take advantage of this and what’s great is that the information is free and it is up to you to take the time to read and learn from it.

The Former

The former mentee, is myself six years ago sitting in on workshops and networking events listening to professionals on how they got to where they are asking myself how I would also get there. Now as a working professional I have the possibility of being that person that gets to talk to younger generations about my career path and how it all started. Recently I had the pleasure to attend a speed networking session for students and some one on one mentoring sessions. I strongly encourage more professionals to help and mentor younger students that have a tough time ahead in our currently saturated job market. I praise the mentors that pay it back with invaluable information, time and effort. For students, you have to remember that a mentor, especially those high up in the ranks won’t necessarily have all the time in the world, but when they make time for you it is imperative that those moments are treasured - remember to keep those golden nuggets of information for when you need them most.

Lastly, what you get out these mentoring relationships entirely depends on how much effort YOU put in! Ensure that you take advantage of all the knowledge that is right in front of you! I’ll leave you with some interesting figures on the importance and the impact of mentors can have on people: 

"The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves." - Steven Spielberg

Thanks for reading! Please see my previous post on internships. I’ll be continuing to write on different topics every month so feel free to click follow, comment and share. 

In this #Mentor series which is tied to LinkedIn’s new student editorial calendar for #studentvoices, professionals thank those who helped them reach where they are today. Read the posts here, then write your own. Don't forget to use #ThankYourMentor