A mentor is a person who can provide you with impartial, honest and confidential advice on your career at times of difficulty, transition, new jobs or changes in career paths. A mentor is a person you can confide in and speak to frankly about how your career is progressing. The honesty goes both ways though and many mentors are brutally honest about the decisions you have or are proposing to take. But that honest and open dialogue can often lead to some lightbulb moments in your career where you decide what step is right for you. You need to make sure you choose the right mentor for your objectives though or the relationship won’t be of value.

A mentoring relationship will depend entirely on who you ask to be your mentor and what you want to get from that mentoring relationship but here are a few things we think a mentor can do to help advance your career:

1. A mentor can be the first port of call for deicisions around job moves or prepping you for job interviews If you are fed up with the role you are in and are ready to move either externally or internally then have a chat with your mentor and explain the situation you are in and why you are looking to move. This can provide a valuable sounding board to talk it through with someone who may undertand the team and company but can provide an impartial looking in perspective.

2. A mentor can be a person to discuss professional accreditations and development with. A mentor is nearly always at a higher job grade than you and therefore will have ‘done it all before.’ Now you have to be careful here that they don’t just prescribe the same career ladder path that they took. Make sure you challenge any recommendations they make that might not suit you. One course that worked for them might not be the way you want to go but they will have useful advice on what accreditations you need to build to advance.

3. A mentor often has a valuable network of contacts around the business and industry and can help make introductions for you for areas you want to explore and learn more about.

4. A mentor can be someone who can put you in touch with people about job opportunities but be careful here as some mentors will see their role as to develop you and push you but not to help you get a new job by piggy backing on their network.

5. A mentor can be a person to provide an answer to ‘how do you think my career is going?’ It is a question that often occupies our heads when we are at our desks at work and getting that outside perspective again can be useful to give you a kick up the backside if required.

GC Tip: Mentors can be extremely valuable in helping you make difficult career decisions so you have a colleague to talk them through with. Invest the time to build a relationship with a mentor and get the most you can from them.