How To Find A Professional Mentor Who Will Help You Grow In Your Career

By Lilian Wamaitha
A mentor is someone who is experienced in a certain field and agrees to share their skills and knowledge with you as well as advice and guide you. A mentor can help you re-structure you career goals, resolve related issues and help you make wise and informed decisions regarding your career. People with professional mentors, are most likely to earn way better, are promoted more frequently and report higher job satisfaction that those who don’t. If you are trying to find a professional mentor yourself, then the one question on your mind is how to go about finding such a person.
Maybe you have reached a point in your career where you feel stuck; you have many years of experience but it is not commensurate with what you earn, are looking to change your career or simply find a new job but you have hit a road block.
Here is how you find a professional mentor who can help steer your career in the right direction.
1. First, be clear on what you want
Even before you seek a mentor, you need to be sure about what you want from the relationship. Maybe you want a mentor who can share information about your industry, one who can help you transition from one career to another or help improve your networks.
Whatever the case, when you find a career mentor, you can only benefit if you first understand yourself and your needs.
Otherwise it will just be a waste of time and resources.
A lot of the time, most people who seek professional mentors, have reached a point where they can no longer do it alone. They have made an informed decision and decided to seek help.
2. Think outside the box and don’t restrict yourself
If you ask a lot of professionals, many will tell you that the best place to find a career mentor is within the confines of their offices.
The truth is, mentors can be found anywhere. As long as that person has the knowledge and skills you are looking for, it doesn’t matter if they work in a totally different industry from you.
They still have what it takes to mentor you for success.
3. Set up a meeting
One you have figured out why you need to find a professional mentor and have narrowed down on the people who might qualify as mentors, it’s time to set up a meeting.
You are going to spend your time with this person and you need to evaluate if they are the perfect fit. And again, just because you want them to be your mentors doesn’t mean that they have that time available on their schedules.
They need to agree first and that can only happen if you ask them.
So take the time to prepare your pitch and go for it. If you don’t know the person, be sure to introduce yourself and what you are about.
Let them know why you have chosen them and be clear on your expectations and what you want from them.
4. Keep the relationship going
Your career mentor will mean that they will the sacrificing their time for you. It’s therefore up to you to keep the relationship going by keeping in touch.
A mentor can only do so much but it is your commitment that will determine if they keep helping you or not.
It’s now your turn
Are you stuck in your job with little or no room for growth?  Are you wondering what happened to your career when you compare where you are versus where you wanted to be? Are unhappy with your salary as the pay is not commensurate with your skills and experience level? Are you looking to get away from a toxic work environment? Then you need to find a professional mentor? And you can start by trying out the CSS 7 week career mentorship program.