The importance of mentors

Good Monday morning,

I drove up to New Hampshire last weekend to see my mentor from my old San Diego days. Tim has been a venture capitalist for almost thirty years now and took me, a freshly minted college graduate, under his wing as part of his leadership of the Yale alumni network in San Diego.

It was wonderful to visit with him and Cindy again. We sat by the shore of Granite Lake talking about old times. And as we chatted, I realized that his stories about the old times had always been my foundational stories for learning about business, my career, and my place in the professional world.

There's the Story of the Recalcitrant Facilities Manager, or the lesson on Beware! the Big Company Acquirer, or the wonderful story about How to Start a Billion-Dollar Company with a Retired Cardiologist and an Ex-Nun. And these stories weren't just great tales of human drama and conflict and achievement, but my own early-career personal seminar on how to make it in this world.

What these stories, and dozens of others like them, taught me was the importance of seeing past appearances, understanding the nature of people and what they can achieve, the ability to succeed with hard work, cleverness, and passion, and the essence of life in the professional world.

A mentor teaches you faster than you can teach yourself. The stories, the wisdom, the guidance that they provide gives you the benefit of understanding the world before you've actually lived through it. And the emotional support and reassurance that somebody who has "been there, done that" can offer to a wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn is comforting as you navigate your way through new experiences.

It is important to seek out mentors. It's no accident that Luke Skywalker needs his Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars saga, that Daniel-san learns from Mr. Miyagi in the classic Karate Kid, that Alexander the Great had Aristotle as his teacher and mentor, or that I had my Tim Wollaeger.

The young hero — that's you, whatever your age — needs to learn from a master, to grow in wisdom and learning while being guided by somebody with greater experience, to have a sounding board and sympathetic ear in times of turmoil.

This is true for your career in general, and especially for your job hunt specifically. I've been in the job industry for over a decade and based on our experience, research, and best practices, we here at TheLadders can guide you through the strategy and tactics of a professional job hunt.

But you also need, very importantly, guidance in the professional job hunt for your industry and field. And a mentor is the best resource for that type of wisdom. He or she can give you insight into the players, the personalities, the opportunities, and the challenges of various opportunities open to you.

We can tell you how to interview, or how to craft a great resume, or how to follow up on your job applications.

But what a mentor provides is wisdom and insight into whether you should go to that big company or the hot little start-up, whether you ought to stay in your area of functional expertise or move towards more general management, whether you'll be better off working for the tough and demanding boss, or you'll thrive in a more collegial atmosphere.

So I'd urge you to cultivate your mentors. Whether she's an old boss, or a more senior colleague, or somebody in the industry that you admire, developing those relationships can make your career growth much richer, better-informed, and savvy.

And you can also get something back by giving back. As I've tweeted before, "The brighter the student, the more the teacher learns." There's no better way to learn, or re-learn, something than by teaching it. And by taking that bright young woman or man under your wing, you'll not only be helping out the next generation, but you'll be surprised at how much you've learned over the years!

So thank you to Tim and Cindy for the wonderful weekend in New Hampshire and the chance to reconnect over some lovely home cooking and a few bottles of wine.

And thanks to you Readers, for listening. I hope you have a great week!

And to all the folks at Target headquarters in Minnesota — I'm looking forward to my talk there today!

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella, Founder & CEO, TheLadders.com

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