You will probably hear alot about finding a mentor when you are a graduate or new into a business. Mentor comes from Greek mythology about a man who provided tutorage and advice in his old age to a friend. Mentoring has become a common term in the English language based on the idea of someone wiser and usually older than you who can impart wisdom and advice based on their experiences. Mentoring in todays world is all about professional development.

“Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.” Eric Parsloe, The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring

Many big companies will have formal mentoring programmes if you are on a graduate program where you sign up and are assigned to a mentor. However, these relationships can often be artificial and forced and the mentor may not be the person best suited to give you advice and help with your personal development. Graduate Career Tips recommends that the mentor you choose is someone you are already know so you can have a productive relationship focussed on your key areas of career development.

Top 5 tips

1. Make sure you know the potential mentor already, as that is a good foundation for the relationship. If you approach someone you don’t know, that is fine but will probably because you have seem them speak or you are aware of a key skill set they have that you are looking to develop. Establish links and networks with potential future mentors as well and try to secure your first mentor while you are still a graduate.

2. Think about what the potential mentor can offer you in terms of their skills and how they can help with your career development.

3. Don’t pick a mentor as a person you want to work for. They should provide you impartial advice and help you improve a specific aspect of your development areas to help your career.

4. Does the mentor you want have the time and willingness to sit with you each month to work on specific areas together? Find this out and be honest with them in terms of the commitment you are expecting to understand whether the relationship will work.

5. Do you have a clear view of what you are asking of the mentor as the mentoree? Do you want them to help link you in to people in other areas of the business or do they have a key skill you want to learn about?