Choose Right Career Mentor to Accelerate Your Career Growth
Someone who shares their knowledge and experience with you in order to assist you in setting objectives, resolving issues, and making wise decisions along your career path is referred to as a career mentor. A mentor could assist you in advancing your career in your current position by acting as an advocate for you. They assist you in your job search and provide guidance and insights about different industries.
After the pandemic, people have become acquainted with everything online. Whether it is work, college, or school, people know how to use online resources and upskill themselves. Similarly, for a career mentor, you don’t have to go anywhere! Online mentoring is easily accessible to all. Read on to learn everything about a career mentor to accelerate your growth.
When is the right time to choose a career mentor?
While it can be beneficial to work with a career expert at any time to advance your career, mentoring is most effective when you have a specific career objective in mind. It helps you to act quickly on a challenge or opportunity. When you are having difficulties with how to begin or grow in your job, a mentor can serve as your accountability partner who is committed to your professional success.
Career objectives might include things like:
- Filling in resume gaps
- Pursuing your dream job
- Having a better work-life balance
- Getting clarity on your career options
- Overcoming knowledge, skill, or resource gaps
- Instilling confidence
How to choose a career mentor?
A career mentor has the ability to change your entire career trajectory. So, it’s important to choose them wisely. You may look for the following qualities in a career mentor:
- Experience – Seek mentors who have achieved success in their own professions. Then, they can help you by guiding you about different industries.
- Friendliness – If a mentor is strict and you are underconfident, it’s not a great combination. So, look for mentors who teach you and treat you nicely.
- Compatibility – You should only associate with people you feel comfortable around and those that share your values.
On online mentoring platforms, you can view mentors’ profiles, find them on LinkedIn and ask your friends or co-workers about particular mentors. You can also view their education and experience details on a mentoring website. So, make sure to do quality research before finalizing a mentor.
Questions to ask
Once you choose a career mentor, ensure you ask the right questions. You have to put your doubts forward in such a manner that the mentor can understand your problem easily. When the mentor listens to your issue, they can come up with a plan of action. The questions may depend on the career stage you’re in. But here are some common questions you may consider asking a career mentor:
- How can I efficiently broaden my exposure to different professions, businesses, and industries?
- How can I stop the negative self-talk that is preventing me from moving forward?
- How can I express myself more in meetings?
- What niches are most in line with my passion?
- Which connections, standards, frameworks, and environmental factors support my success or failure?
- How to identify my USP (unique selling point)?
- What are my strengths and weaknesses?
- How to find the right job for me?
- How can I use my networks and resources to create additional value?
Add value to your mentor
Mentorship involves both parties. Mentors develop their leadership and management abilities while assisting mentees in accomplishing their goals. Mentees benefit from the mentor’s experienced advice, which saves them time in achieving their career goals.
Ask your mentor questions to get to know them better. Ask them about their long-term goals, their strengths, and how they work on their weaknesses. Add insights to conversations and give mentors different perspectives on numerous subjects. This will, in turn, enhance their expertise, and they would want to interact with you more and help you more. You can also keep in touch after your online mentoring sessions and plan a meet-up to explore if this connection might still be beneficial to both of your lives.
How to find a career mentor?
Whenever we’re confused about a question, where do we look for the answer? We search for it online! You can find various online mentoring platforms having industry experts as mentors and conducting one-to-one sessions.
Nordsta is one such platform. They offer personalized mentoring to advance your career within no time. They don’t follow an all-fits-one approach. Instead, they understand that you and your aspirations are unique and provide experiential insights through one-to-one mentoring sessions. Get in touch with Nordsta to enhance your network and for comprehensive skill development.
