Finding a mentor is never easy. A trusted adviser can give you beneficial career advice and help guide you throughout your career. You can learn a lot of valuable lessons from a mentor. A mentor is able to spot all the areas that you need improvement in, and help you tackle all your weaknesses. As a result, having a mentor can greatly stimulate your professional growth. So how can you get all these career benefits when you don’t have a mentor? Believe it or not, it’s not that hard!
Shadow Professionals
Is there someone at your company whose career path you’d love to follow, but he or she is far too busy to become your mentor? If that’s the case, then ask that person if you can shadow them from time to time to see what their days look like. When you shadow a professional, they can support you and offer you encouragement despite not being your mentor. In addition, job shadowing can help you decide if your skills match the career field that you are interested in.
Read Inspirational Autobiographies
Are you looking for inspiration? It may be time to pick up a good autobiography and get inspired! When you don’t have a mentor, it might be hard to find the necessary motivation to keep you going. For these reasons, you should opt for finding an autobiography of a professional that you can relate to. By reading inspirational autobiographies, you can learn how to overcome challenges, embrace failure and learn from your mistakes.
Expand Your Network
Believe it or not, but the reason you don’t have a mentor could be because your professional network is not large enough. Having an extensive professional network can actually be just as effective as having a mentor. An expansive network can allow you to interact with several professionals who are on your level (or even higher) and ask them for advice and tips that can definitely help your career path. When you aim to strengthen your connections and build a strong network, you’ll notice how the support you will be getting can be quite equivalent to that of a mentor.
Attend Career Counseling
Many people tend to underestimate career counseling as they seem to think they aren’t really that useful. But did you know that you have a higher chance of landing a job if you have a career counselor? If you’re struggling to find a mentor, then attending career counseling can teach you the art of networking, how to write an effective resume, and prep you for interviews where you can craft the best answers to tricky interview questions. If you feel like you’re taking too much of your boss’ time by asking him or her so many questions, then you can always opt for attending career counseling where you can get all the necessary time to get answers to your questions, and career guidance.
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Written By: Fatima Rassool
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