Cool Conversations with Cool People: Converting Networking to Mentorship
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. – African Proverb
If you identify someone who you would like to connect with outside of a networking event, or who has a similar path to your own that has led them to a place you admire, this might be a good candidate for a mentoring relationship. Please keep in mind that there are many different types of mentorship, all with unique benefits. However, as first generation young professionals, let’s focus on three main ones: traditional mentorship, skills-based mentors, and informal mentorship.
Traditional mentorship
The most common mentorship relationship is the traditional mentorship, usually a structured, one-on-one relationship where a more experienced individual (the mentor) provides guidance, advice, and support to a less experienced person (the mentee). The sharing of the mentors knowledge and experience hopefully results in the mentee’s professional and personal growth. This is the most common mentorship format as you begin your career and, if you find value in it, will hopefully pay forward to future first generation leaders. If you are in school, your college or university may have a formal mentorship program; keep in mind that the Deans may also have relationships with alumni in your specific majors. There are also mentorship programs available through many professional organizations, some employers have internal mentorship programs, and there are many non-profit organizations in Milwaukee that focus on mentorship.
Besides career advice, traditional mentors can assist in choosing classes, conduct mock interviews or resume reviews, or provide options as to career path choices. A mentor should be as much as cheerleader for your wins, as a support system for your setbacks. A good traditional mentor will open their network to you, as well, and connect you with people that can help you achieve their goals. That being said, please do not expect your mentor to hire you - the purpose of the relationship is to provide advice, not a job. Hopefully, this direct mentorship results in increased confidence in your decisionmaking, resilience when faced with adversity, and celebration of your achievements.
skills based mentorship
Our second type of mentorship is a skills-based mentorship, where the mentor's role is to provide guidance, resources, and feedback on mastering specific technical, soft, or leadership skills, rather than offering broad career advice or personal development. As first generation professionals, it is difficult to know what we don't know. However, as you are navigating your career journey, you will notice influential people that you admire or who embody certain skills or personality traits that you find admirable. Identify those skills or personality traits, write them down, and connect with people who can help you develop them. These can be professional skills (such as hard skills, new aspects of role or aspects of the roles ahead of you, or industry insights or newness) or personal skills (such as active listening, conversation skills, or elevating your executive presence).
informal mentorship
Finally, our third type of mentorship is an informal mentorship. Maybe you met someone at a networking event you think is simply a cool person. Maybe you enjoyed the way they spoke about their role, about their interests outside of work (perhaps you even had interests in common), or they have an aspirational job title that is not along your immediate career path. This would be a great candidate for an informal, or “informational”, mentorship relationship. This is the least formal mentoring relationship and is not as structured. Perhaps you meet with this person as-needed, when you are experiencing a specific issue at work, need general work-life advice, or even just along a quarterly cadence for life updates. There should still be a purpose to these meetings, and you should still be sending a short agenda, but the tone can be much less intense. These are often industry agnostic but still aspirational.
what type of mentorship do you need?
These three types of mentorships all offer unique benefits. But in order to choose which one is right for you, consider what you need from the relationship. Are you looking for overall guidance or to solve a specific issue? Have you identified the key skillsets and knowledge areas for your career? What is a common title sequence as you explore your industry? All of these are good questions to get you started, but always be actively listening for things that your networking connections can teach you. And don't forget that you offer value and insight as well, don’t be afraid voice your perspective.
Key takeaways for a productive ongoing mentorship relationship
First, it is on you, the mentee, to drive the relationship. If you want to have a fruitful mentoring relationship, you need to be consistent in your meeting cadence. The specificity of the meeting cadence is completely up to you - do you want to meet monthly, quarterly, bi-annually? If you opt for “as-needed” in a formal mentorship, do you commit to keeping that mentor updated on your progress in-between? Pro tip: use recurring calendar invites - set the same meeting time every month or every other month.
follow up, follow up, follow up
Secondly, agendas, recaps, and follow ups. Have an idea what you want to discuss with your mentors. Are you choosing classes and want their perspective on which classes most apply to their daily responsibilities? Are you experiencing a very specific interpersonal issue and want to know how they would handle it? Is it an update meeting where you simply celebrate wins over coffee? Have a purpose for the time together in order to make the most of the meeting. Once the meeting has concluded, send a recap of what was discussed. Not only is this an organizational flex on your part, it helps your mentor (and yourself) review what was discussed before your next meeting. Same idea with follow ups - if you say you are going to send over your resume, for example, or reach out to one of your mentors colleagues, be sure to follow through.
Not feeling it? That’s totally okay
Not all first connections will turn into long-term mentorships. There are plenty of scenarios where the purpose of the connection was to ask very specific questions and not continue the relationship in perpetuity. In those instances, you would still send the recap email, but thank the person for their time and not request a further connection. Short-term mentorships are also popular; for example, some can run the length of an internship or an academic school year. As first generation professionals, it is important to have mentors who understand the unique challenges you face and if you do not see that understanding reflected in your mentor, it is perfectly acceptable not to continue the conversation.
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