How IT Mentors Can Help Advance Your Tech Career

A strong work ethic, degrees, certifications and experience aren't always enough to get you where you want to be. While those items are the foundation of a solid IT career, sometimes you need insight from someone who's climbed that mountain already. Here's how a mentor can help you move forward in the IT field.

You've worked hard in your IT job, you've attended classes and even have all the latest certifications. Still, your career is stuck in neutral. While dedication, education and training are irreplaceable, sometimes they aren't enough. Sometimes you need a personal touch. Sometimes you can't beat the insight you gain from someone who is where you want to be someday.

After all, when it comes to professional development and career planning who couldn't use a trusted advisor to bounce questions off of? Whether it's something as mundane as how to approach a specific assignment or something more life-altering such as weighing job offers from different companies, having a mentor in your corner who's "been there, done that" can help turn your job into a career.

How are Mentors valuable to you ?

Mentors are helpful because, in addition to expertise in their field, they have a network of business professionals and, most importantly, they are willing to share what and who they know. People who mentor are likely to have had mentors at some point who helped them understand their industry better, hone their strengths or sharpen skills.

How Can a Mentor Help Your IT Career?

Having a mentor is important regardless of your age or your position. Everyone needs someone from the outside to share the insight and experiences to help better ourselves. Mentors can help you establish the 'big picture'.

How to get things Rolling?

So you've been introduced and are getting ready to meet with your new mentor. Keep in mind that this is a professional relationship with a business advisor, not a friendship, and it needs to be treated as such. Be on time, have specific questions in mind, keep personal items aside and do your best to keep the meeting on point. Below are 13 tips on how to get things moving:

• Update your resume
• List your goals
• Establish what is expected from mentee and mentor
• Identify frequency of meetings
• Identify how the success of mentoring will be measured
• Agree on how to connect in the interim.
• Agree on ground rules: confidentiality, giving/receiving feedback and so on
• Get to know each other: For example, find out how your mentor got to where he or she is in the company
• Share what you hope to get out of the relationship. What things are you particularly interested in?
• Share your feedback from any assessments. Share a key development area and ask for help and feedback throughout your relationship.
• Share any areas of development you are working on, ask if they've run into similar challenges in their career and what they've done to address them.
• What are they/you reading right now? (e.g., business books, leadership books and so on.)
• Where are areas that you can help them? (e.g., reverse mentoring, research)

How often you meet, the subjects discussed and how best to stay in contact should all be discussed and agreed upon. These will be different depending on goals and scheduling. "There will be times when a short-term goal is looming and you need to meet more often, Regardless, you should establish a schedule and be flexible.

Obtaining and working with a mentor can seem like a daunting task, but you've got to start somewhere. Look around and see what resources are available to you. You may not have to go very far. But even if you do, most IT pros who have had mentors find that the mileage was worth it. You may end up somewhere you never anticipated.

We'd love to hear about your mentoring stories be it good or bad and as always we welcome feedback.

Email us at info@lightsinnovationlabs.com