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A few years ago, I found myself at a point in my life when I started to think a lot about all the opportunities that I had been given. I felt grateful for the key people in my life who acted as mentors and offered me those opportunities. That feeling of appreciation made me realise that it was time to pay it forward and offer that experience and those opportunities to others.
I know first-hand that having a mentor can change your career forever. When I changed career at almost 40 years old, I started anew in a different industry, a different country, a different work culture and a different language. I wouldn’t have been able to get a foot in the new industry if it hadn’t been for those who lend me a hand.
I discovered that there are people in every industry willing to offer advice, who wish to inspire others and offer career and business advice. People who understand the difficulty of not having contacts or resources when you are starting out.
So I decided to offer that chance to other people coming into the workforce, but also allow myself to have a positive impact on someone else’s career.
It all started with one person asking for advice and for someone to keep them accountable for the progress of their project.
When I started mentoring them, I didn’t know exactly how I could support them or what kind of help they needed. I only knew that I had been in the workforce for 27 years and in the creative industries for almost 15 so at least there were some questions that I could answer.
My mentee also had no idea of the kind of help that they needed. Our first conversation was more to get acquainted with each other and to establish the line of communication that we would follow for the rest of the mentorship.
We soon realised that they had many questions that weren’t obvious to them at first, but that throughout the weeks started to arise. And some questions led to straight answers, but other questions opened more questions and the conversations became more informative with time.
I was able to offer insights into the job market and how the industry works, apart from advice on how to develop projects from inception to completion.
I was happy to help, but I never expected that in turn, they were going to help me as well. As a mentor, you learn as much from them as your mentees learn from you. It’s a symbiotic relationship. You offer advice and give answers to questions about your industry and your job. In return, your mentee offers you a different perspective on your own career and on life. They give you a fresh view of the issues that people coming from other backgrounds face when they join the industry. They show you a whole new way of doing things.
I am someone completely different from the person that I was when I started mentoring others. Mentorship has opened my horizons, and it has made me more conscious of the vast experience and knowledge that I have that I wasn’t aware of. It has helped me sell myself better as an expert in what I do. And, more importantly, it has given me the satisfaction of being able to share my knowledge with others and to see how others thrive when they feel supported.
Photo credit: behind the scenes by Sandy AbdelRahman.
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