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Having a mentor as an early-career professional can be incredibly beneficial for your career, both now and in the future. Mentors can provide valuable advice and knowledge that will get you ahead and help you be successful. If you’re on the fence about whether you should seek out a mentor, here are five reasons you should consider doing so.
1. Knowledge Gaps
Your college classes teach you the technical knowledge needed to successfully complete your work as an intern or entry-level professional. But these classes aren’t as beneficial when it comes to learning corporate etiquette and navigating the transition from campus to corporate. A lot of this knowledge comes from experience, which is where your mentor comes in. Mentors have already had this experience, and you have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes instead of making your own.
When you’re starting out in your career, you likely have some skills that could use improvement. Mentors can help you build and hone your skills so you can be more successful in your entry-level role. They can assist you with soft skills, such as crafting professional emails, or hard skills, such as AI fluency. They will also help point out the skills that need the most work. This sharing of knowledge will help you in your current role and can also be beneficial if you find yourself looking for a new role.
2. Feedback
Mentors are also a great way to get more feedback on your work, skills, and goals. While your manager or supervisor will be providing feedback on your specific projects, feedback from a mentor has a wider scope and can include things outside of your per formance. A mentor is more likely than your manager to mention how to improve your meeting presence. This feedback is also more low-stakes—you aren’t being evaluated, but instead you are receiving tips from someone who only wants to help you.
3. Confidence
Being an early-talent professional comes with doubts, insecurities, and sometimes, imposter syndrome. This is where mentors can step in to provide encouragement and validation that you are capable of doing the work you’ve been tasked with. Mentorship can help you to realize the success you’ve had and help foster a growth mindset, where you focus on what you can achieve instead of your shortcomings. Additionally, your mentor isn’t perfect and has likely experienced the same feelings when first starting their career. Knowing that someone you look up to also had some struggles along the way can help to boost your confidence.
4. Navigating Big Decisions
When you’re just starting out in your career, it’s common to be faced with decision paralysis. Should you ask for that promotion? Should you change jobs? Should you go to grad school? These decisions feel daunting without experience to compare them against. Mentors, however, have this experience and have likely been faced with similar situations. Your mentor can be your sounding board when you’re trying to decide what to do next, and their advice is based on their own experience with similar things. They can help you weigh the pros and cons and have enough distance from the situation to spot issues you may not have considered.
5. Job Satisfaction
It’s been consistently shown that mentorship is directly related to job satisfaction. A large part of this is because you are receiving well-deserved recognition. While your manager may provide praise when a project is completed, a mentor sees you at every step. A study done by Deloitte showed that approximately 48 percent of Gen Z and Millennials say that recognition contributes “a lot” to their job satisfaction. If your workplace doesn’t have good recognition practices in place, a mentor can fill this gap.
Having a mentor can also lead to less burnout. If work is demanding a lot from you, a mentor can help you set boundaries, recognize when to step back, and be someone you can turn to when the stress becomes overwhelming. Having a mentor can also lead to finding more meaning in your work, which can help combat burnout as well.
These are only a few of the many benefits employees see when they have a mentor. If you’re on the fence about seeking out a mentor, consider how these five benefits will help your career in the long run.
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