So, you’ve decided to become a mentor! Here’s everything you need to know.
What is a mentor?
Simply put, a mentor provides personal or professional advice and guidance to someone less experienced than them, with the goal of helping that person advance in their career.
How does it work?
Mentoring usually takes place over a series of meetings, whether in-person or online. In the first introductory session, you should take time to introduce yourself and build rapport with your mentee and set out measurable and achievable goals that your mentee can work towards and (hopefully!) reach by the end of your sessions.
What does mentoring look like?
Mentoring could look like practical advice such as CV or Cover Letter feedback, it could look like providing advice or guidance on a professional scenario, it could look like providing your intern with the emotional and professional confidence that they need to take the next steps in their career.
It could be one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring or even providing masterclasses.
Why is mentorship important?
By becoming a mentor, you get to be the change that you want to see in the industry. It is a very fulfilling experience, as you get to see the impact that your guidance and advice has had on a young person as they achieve their goals over time.
Mentorship also helps to break down so many barriers within an industry that can often feel impossible to break into. Remember how you felt when you started out? Imagine how it would’ve felt to have someone you can look up as a professional role model saying “Hey, I felt this way once, too”.
Mentoring combats issues such as nepotism (a lot of young people who want to join the industry have little to no professional connections, putting them at an immediate disadvantage), it gives young people who face barriers such as socioeconomic, regional, racial or discriminatory accessibility issues an opportunity to have a safe space and someone who will listen to them, and most importantly, it provides a space for someone to ask questions!
As a mentor, you have an opportunity to make a real difference and to be the change that you want to see in the industry, particularly when it’s bringing up people with you (such as people from non-elite backgrounds) who might not otherwise have the chance. This change will then spill into newsrooms, making them more diverse, kinder and well-suited spaces, providing ultimately much better news coverage for everyone to consume, by a more representative group of society.
What does mentorship offer me?
Mentorship offers you the opportunity to expand your social circles and perspective, build upon your leadership and rapport-building skills, further your career development, learn something new (your mentee can give you a crash course on TikTok!) and the opportunity to become a change-maker.
What makes a great mentor?
- Setting realistic expectations that your intern can work towards. Anything unrealistic can feel too much of a challenge and overwhelming when you’re first starting out!
- Be very honest when providing constructive feedback, and offering blindspots. This may be an individual’s only chance to receive this sort of feedback before applying for jobs or interning, so make sure it counts!
- Instilling personal and professional confidence in your mentee
- Celebrating your mentee’s growth and success
- Maintaining constant communication
- Building trust and rapport with your mentee
- Listening to your mentee, rather than simply instructing them
- Have frank and honest conversations, including thinking about what you can learn from your mentee and examples of your own pre-existing judgment or bias
- Providing specific guidance and instructions for feedback
- Letting your mentee be independent enough to find out their own solutions and pathways
- Providing mutual trust and respect
- Enthusiasm
- Taking a genuine interest in your mentee
- Knowing when to pass on your network, or even refer your mentee to others when you are not qualified to advise. It’s better to do this than to give potentially bad advice.
You’ll find a piece on one of our mentor’s experiences here.
Image Credit: Vadim Bogulov, Website Link: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-pile-of-small-white-objects-on-a-white-surface-Vq-Sqr7D_7k
