The Importance of Mentorship

Photo Credit: gviciano

Mentorship is an incredible means by which any young engineer can grow. It’s an invaluable component to developing both hard technical skills as well as soft business skills. A strong mentor can help you in three key ways. They act as a role model; a real life example of someone you can aspire to be like; they give you the opportunity to apply their life’s lessons learned without you having to have made the same mistakes; and, they can answer your tough questions, even if you don’t know enough to ask them.

Someone to Aspire To

What I think is most important about a mentor is that they give you a real life example of someone to aspire to. They’re role models. This is important because they give you a goal in your career. Furthermore, you know that the goal is achievable since your mentor is someone who’s done it. Then, they become your go-to person when you want to learn about what career moves to take to get to where they are.

Learn From Someone Else’s Mistakes

This is key. As awesome, wise, and well-paid as a mentor may be, they’ve definitely made mistakes. It’s true. That’s actually a good thing, because you could make those mistakes too. Mentorship will give you access to a sounding board; someone to bounce ideas off of. This is especially valuable when you’re approaching some task or project for the first time. For example, when I was asked to go to South America for a short term assignment, I consulted a half dozen people who had done it before. I learned a heck of a lot from them that I never even would have thought to dig into. For example, I got really good advice with respect to how to handle my taxes if I went. I can’t say I ever would have thought of that.

Answers to the Questions You Don’t Have

One last significant benefit to developing a relationship with a mentor is that they can help you ask the right questions about a situation, and answer them too! As a young engineer, it’s easy to miss some of (or lots of!) the key elements you need to consider when taking on a task or project. Again, this goes for both technical elements and soft skills-type stuff as well.

Your Mission:

Chose a mentor! Think of someone at work that you’d really like to emulate. Who does what you see yourself doing when you’re that age. Start making a point of going to them with your questions – just make sure they’re smart questions! Over time, you’ll be able to build a relationship with them. Once you’re comfortable, you can start having bigger picture discussions.

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