How to find a Mentor in Academic and Professional Life?

In today’s times, one should have the attitude of a constant learner to survive and strive better.

A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser who provides guidance and support to a less experienced person over a period of time, especially at work or school. A mentor is someone who has the ability to guide you at any point of time in life.

Our earliest mentors are our parents, who literally teach us all the basics of becoming a human being from a living mammal from the time we are born.

Then our elders, siblings, friends, family members, neighbours become our mentors in some form or the other in the formative years of lives.

As we start going to schools, our teachers become our mentors, from whom we learn academically different subjects and that journey continues till the time we are in our academic careers.

From the academic life we than move into the professional careers, where our colleagues, seniors, leaders etc become our mentors. And while in the professional careers, each and every person from the customers to strangers to everyone else with whom we deal with become our mentors. From each of these individuals we learn something everyday in our professional career.

Concurrently, we get married and, in the process, our spouse become a mentor in areas which are completely new for us from earlier bachelor lives. As married couple we tend to interchangeably become mentor to each other in areas, which are new to both of us.

To be able to constantly grow in life, one must always try to find mentors in variety of areas, because we are constantly working/dealing with variety of issues/subjects daily in our lives till our last day of life. There will be something to learn new every day, only if we are willing to accept our ignorance honestly and be open to listen and take advice from others.

Finding an academic mentor and a professional mentor are the two most important pieces in anyone’s successful life. Let’s look at the example of Bill Gates, one of the most successful business man of the world. He was mentored by Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Gates and Buffett have been close friends for over 25 years, and Gates has often credited him with providing valuable advice and guidance throughout his career. In his book “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life,” Alice Schroeder writes that Buffett has been a mentor to Gates since they first met in 1991. Gates has also mentioned that he learned a lot from Buffett about how to manage his time and prioritize certain tasks.

A professional mentor is someone, who is unbiased and straight in giving the right kind of feedback to the mentee. Finding a professional mentor is not easy especially within the same working environment, because often human beings tend get influenced by the personal biases. Hence, one need to find a professional mentor preferably from outside the work domain and preferably with relevant industry experience (though this may not be a mandatory condition for an effective mentor).

Desirable qualities of a good professional mentor:

1.    Empathetic & Active Listener

2.    Good Communicator

3.    Relevant expertise/domain knowledge

4.    Growth mindset

5.    Authenticity

6.    Patience

7.    Genuinely interested to support the mentee.

The qualities of a good academic mentor is also similar to the professional mentors, in addition, the academic mentors should be knowledgeable about the latest trends in the education sector and should be resourceful to provide relevant information which a mentee may seek, which could be beyond the knowledge for the mentor but he/she know how to acquire such knowledge/information in relatively short duration and provide the necessary support to the mentee.

Finding a Mentor in the Academic field could be little easier that finding a Career Mentor.

Here are the various ways to find them.

From School/College/Universities. Often the institution do have a structured mentorship programs, which may be useful to you.

 

Look for mentorship programs outside of your institution: There are many organizations that offer mentorship programs for students and researchers. You can search online for these programs or check with professional organizations in your field.

 

Through Academic Events: Attending conferences, seminars, and other academic events can be a great way to meet potential mentors. You can also network with other students and researchers in your field.

 

One can join online communities: There are many online communities for academics where you can connect with other researchers and students in your field. These communities can be a great way to find potential mentors.

 

In a world which is fast changing thanks to the technology, environment, socioeconomics and geopolitical changes, both professionals and students need constant handholding from mentors from various fields. Because the mentors, are in a better position to make sense of the fast-changing world and can help the mentees to adapt to the changes faster and better.