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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
Successful entrepreneurship usually includes a group of trusted mentors, according to Ben Casnocha, author of, My Start up Life. But now that I’ve spent a few months in corporate life, it’s clear to me that having a group of mentors is important whether you work for yourself or for someone else. However the majority of people I know are not great at seeking out and developing these relationships. What I have learned in the past few months is it’s easier than you think! Here are three things I have done that have helped me develop very rewarding relationships with mentors.
1. Find the right network
For twentysomethings, the easiest place to look is in your parent’s network. Take advantage of it because they’ve been developing these connections for years. Ask your parents if any of their friends or colleagues work in a field you are interested in.
If you are not lucky enough to have well connected parents, all is not lost. Networking groups are everywhere these days. MeetUp.com gives you a way to find people with similar interests. Or you can start a niche blog and comment on blog posts from field-related experts. Leave a few insightful comments and your foot is in the door to contacting them.
2. Reach out
Once you have made the first connection, the next step is simple. Reach out with a short email. Ask for a few pieces of advice. Assuming your contact replies, continue the conversation for a few days. Finally, ask if she is interested in meeting up for a quick lunch. Despite the ease of connecting online, face to face interaction can make a big difference in how quickly you make your mentor feel connected with you. At the very least, try to have a relatively long phone conversation to get to know each other.
I just started reading Ben’s book at the beach this weekend. It’s absolutely wonderful. I’m making my mom read it as soon as I’m finished. Highly recommended to anyone curious about being an entrepreneur or simply hitting the workforce at a young age.
As for finding mentors, I agree wholeheartedly. My first job was a result of one of my mom’s mentors (and boss at the time). She’s been a very influential woman in my life and we haven’t even had that much one-on-one contact. I’m really looking forward to using my co-op experiences to build my network and mentor network across a few fields.
What kind of system do you use to keep track of your mentors’ contact information?
Your tips are right on Ryan. Many college graduates, myself included, feel like they may be bothering or pestering the older more established career professionals, but the truth is most of them really do love sharing their knowledge and offering their advice.
Network, network, network! Our professors couldn’t drill those words into our heads enough. Well, I finally realized they do know what they’re talking about. It definitely takes some time and energy to establish relationships and make those connections but I promise the energy you put in will be returned back to you ten-fold!
I’m glad you included the tip for those of us who may not have well connected parents….I checked out meetup.com and it seems to have a lot of great forums for establishing connections.
Great advice. I think it’s hard for a lot of young people to feel like they’re “imposing themselves” on others, when in actuality, most people are more than happy to offer their advice and opinions. I think realizing that most people are willing to take on the role of mentor is a major step in making those connections.
Danielle - Agreed, Ben’s book is really good. Great question about keeping up track of contact info. I really need to get more organized with that. But for now I just have an Excel sheet with Name, Title, Phone, Email, and any other info. I also save every email I receive. Honestly, I’m looking for a better system. Anyone have ideas?
Gina - I always used to think i was bothering someone when asking for help or advice, but it’s just not true. Think about when someone asks you for advice. I would bet you feel honored. I do. Also, networking is extremely important. I would make sure you don’t pigeonhole yourself with networking though. Reach out to people in every field or region. Who knows where you will end up in the future.
Rachel - Great point, many people would love to be considered a mentor. I hope someone seeks me out in the future!
Thanks for the comments.
-Ryan
On the keeping track of contacts issue, I use Outlook, so I use the Contacts feature there. When someone sends an email, just right click on their email address and choose “add to contacts” and voila! there they are . Then you can write notes about them, etc. on their entry. I haven’t gotten into all the features of Contacts, but I think there is even a way to list all the emails they’ve sent you. I don’t know if other email software has something similar.
Does anyone else find the idea of being mentored slightly ‘icky’?
I find the idea of this sort of nebulous parent/business relationship just rather uncomfortable.
Am I the only one who feels this way? I’m not saying I’m right, just trying to understand how everyone else deals with these sort of relationships.
Hi Ben,
There are many good reasons to seek out a mentor! I know, for example, that my own success would not have come as quickly or as easily had it not been for my mentors. I certainly owe them a lot. And the most successful people in business in the world often acknowledge the impact their mentors had on them.
I started my mentoring program, known as SMARTSTART, back in 2005 following a lecture I gave at the Queen’s School of Business. I was inspired by the students attending my class and I had been looking for a way to honour those to whom I owe my own success. The “pay it forward” idea seemed perfect suited to the task.
I thought people would join, stay a year or so, then leave once they had their MBA, their job, their whatever we were working on. But I was so wrong! Not a single person has ever given up their seat in the program. All the original students are still with me. So I have to keep expanding it through the creative use of technology as new members have been joining from around the world.
I thought my program would appeal to people in their forties and fifties. Wrong again, the majority of my members are GEN Y, although the age range runs from 14 to 65! They blow me away with their dedication, ambition, and work ethic. Working with them keeps me young and my mind engaged.
Now here’s the really interesting part. Interest in mentoring programs from overseas is running higher (about 10x higher actually) than in North America (although demand here is quite high). These folks are hungry for people to help them, share knowledge, provide guidance and so on and dedicate much time to beating the pants off my North American students.
All the students see the value in the connections. I haven’t had any who thought the idea of working with a mentor who is older and more experienced than them was too awful to contemplate. And the rewards have been great all around. I meet lots of interesting young people and they get the benefit of all the shortcuts to success they could want that in turn lets them realize their dreams much faster than if they were working on their own. Someday, it will be their turn to “pay it forward” too! It’s the way things work.
Linda M. Lopeke
www.smartstartcoach.com
www.lindalopeke.com