Why mentoring is so important
I’ve had a few mentors in the past without actually realising they were “mentorsâ€.
My first mentor was my manager in the workplace, she guided me through adapting to work, encouraged me and gave me the confidence to succeed in the role.
The second stand out mentor was the king of UX recruitment himself, Nick Grantham. During my time working with him, he taught me a lot in a short space of time using his years of failing to success to give me his wealth of knowledge so I didn’t make the same mistakes.
I’ve had awful mentoring experiences, for example, meeting once and not having any accountability, expensive mentors and wishy-washy personal development gurus.
This led me to build Candles. After doing some initial research and seeing first hand the problems people have entering the workplace, I’m working to improve the mentoring experience and connect people to up-skill, have a fantastic experience, make friends, network and have accountability on their goals.
With that being said, why is having a mentor great?
It’s who you know, not what you know.
When you’re looking for a new role, making an exciting career move taking advice from a mentor is key to unlocking relationships with other people as they can introduce you to people. They can advise how to approach people, who to approach, meet-ups to attend.
Rapid learning
People who have years of experience in one profession have had their fair share of failures unless they’re a genius. What has taken them 5 years to learn, you can take their experience and increase your rate of learning without making the same mistakes.
Become more empowered to make decisions
This is vital. Having someone who understands you, your role, your predicament and aspirations are game-changing.
Sometimes you need to bounce ideas off someone, collaborate and get inspired. This can help someone gain confidence in their abilities and get rid of self-doubt.
Navigate your career
Sometimes it’s hard to make the right career move. Do I pay 10k for this course? Do I try and self learn? Are a few of the questions I get asked a lot when I speak to people moving into design. An experienced mentor will be able to give their feedback, break down your skills, areas for improvement and give you an informed recommendation.
Mentors are free most of the time
Rapid learning, learn from years of mistakes, get constant support, connect with others and it’s FREE?!
The majority of the time, people like to give back and feel it helps them grow as leaders so they’ll give up 1–2 hours per week for free to lend a hand. It could be the best investment you’ll ever make.
UX Designer
6 å¹´People might be interested in the uxpa mentoring programme too https://uxpa-uk.org/development/mentoring/
Product Designer [B.Eng, Product Design] - Years of experience in UX, UI, IA, User Research, User Testing, Tech and Advertising
6 å¹´Great article!
Sr Product/UI Designer, UX Research & Strategy, Usability Expert, & UX Mentor ? ex. Microsoft, Udacity, & Match Group
6 å¹´Awesome! Please let us know when the app is ready, thanks Tom
Communications advisor at the WEHI Parkinson's DIsease Research Centre. Supporting research efforts to find a drug to stop Parkinson's. Volunteer research consumer advocate. Writer. PwP.
6 å¹´During one of the greatest periods of economic progress, in the 1950's and 60's, all roles started with mentors. It was how skillsets were developed and specialist knowledge passed down. It was how progress was managed. In trades it was called an apprenticeship. In the design world, I had a mentor in my first studio, a semi-retired guy who taught me all the secrets he'd learned. In my experience having a mentor accelerated my learning curve and put a whole new light on my academic studies. It was like a turbo-boost for my skills and abilities. To not have any mentors or seniors teaching / coaching younger people is a sure fire way to lose decades of cultural and industrial investment quickly. After all, we need to know what happened before us in order to not make the same errors.
Travelling the world, back 2025 ????
6 å¹´?? Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes! ?? Mentoring is so important when it comes to identifying design blindspots and learning about new angles to approach tasks. This is excellent Tom. Let me know if you need beta testers for the app! ??