Which relationship suits you better?

While pursuing skills development for yourself is very important, you also need to have a connection with someone in your target industry. This will help reach new people, showcase your skills and find your own place within a business in the long run. You can achieve that either via networking or mentorship. But should you go for a mentor-mentee relationship or a networking relationship? Let’s find out.

Networking relationships

Your networking contact is a person with whom you connected via a group affiliation, industry event, alma mater, common friend or anything in between. You usually exchange information with this person via a phone call, you rarely meet them face to face. It’s possible to meet hundreds of people through networking, so you can’t have close relationships with every person. 

Most of the time, it’s just you knowing some people in the industry that might assist you with some tasks here and there. Plus, networking relationships are very diverse. Some last a lifetime, others will end very quickly. Normally, you won’t have a knowledge of background (or very little) between the two people in the networking relationship. There’s also no expectation for career advice or any type of assistance.

Mentor-mentee relationship

A mentor is that person who knows you and your background, even a tiny bit. Most of the time, the mentor will know you very well, and he will assist with career advice and other important tasks. He will know how to assist you and how to offer any help. Mentors have a lot of experience in the industry, and they will use that to provide you with the much-needed guidance and support you want in a situation that you might not be familiar with.

The expectations are pretty much mapped out between the mentor and mentee. They know what each party wants/needs, their role and how many meetings they need to go through. Yes, unlike a networking relationship, the mentor-mentee relationship has a focused approach. 

Both the mentor and mentee need to meet from time to time, and the mentee expects assistance and support from the mentor. You can’t expect that from a person you just met through networking. That’s what makes the mentor-mentee relationship a lot more powerful. It’s unlike any other type of business relationship, and it can be a long-term relationship as well. It all comes down to the understanding and a trust-based agreement between the mentor and mentee.

Which is the better option?

Networking and mentorship both have their place in the professional world. However, they are not the same thing. Mentorship brings a relationship focused on trust, and it’s focused on growth for the mentee. It also brings some advantages to the mentor too, in the form reinforcing their experience. In the case of networking, you’re trying to establish more and more connections in the industry. 

The truth is that you need both relationships in order to boost your career efforts and achieve growth. From career advice and other mentoring benefits to constantly meeting new people in the industry, all these relationships will help. Essentially, a networking relationship can mature into a Mentor-Mentee relationship to have a common outcome as well. All you have to do is to find the right mentor by constantly connecting with industry professionals, it will be well worth the effort to start your journey now!

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