6 Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Career Mentors

The journey of life comes with a lot of experiences, and these experiences can have a great impact on how you do and see things. To rise in your career, you must have a mentor. A mentor is someone who guides and coaches you to become a better version of yourself, but that’s not all to mentorship; it goes beyond guiding and coaching.

Mentorship is allowing someone with more knowledge than you in your career to lead you by the hand. One of the best self-investments you can give yourself is finding a mentor who understands how to draw the ropes in your career field and stick with them. Learning how to stay in touch with your career mentors is a beautiful thing.

A wise man once said, “People learn in two ways; they either learn through mistakes or mentorship.” You will agree with me that it is better to learn through mentorship than to learn through mistakes. So, to know how to stay in touch with your career mentors, kindly keep these tips in mind.

Table of Contents

6 Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Career Mentors

Study your mentor

Study your mentor

Studying your mentor allows you to know and understand what your mentor likes or dislikes. The advantages of studying your mentor cannot be overemphasized. You will find it easy to flow with your career mentors when you take out time to study them.

To stay in touch with your career mentors as a mentee, you must be deliberate about studying their character. Your mentor is a human being, and so he/she will have weaknesses and strengths.

If you don’t carefully study your mentor’s persona, you may end up doing things that he/she may not like or appreciate. Don’t allow a day to go by without learning something about your mentor. Learn something about how they respond to calls, how they manage crises, how they want to be addressed, what easily gets them angry, and what makes them very excited, etc.

Read also: Choosing a Mentor: Factors to Consider for the Best Results

Value and respect their time

Value and respect your mentor time

Your mentor will most likely be involved in many activities, so placing value and respecting their time will keep you in their good books. Nobody appreciates it when their time is wasted. Therefore, every time you have an opportunity to meet your career mentor, you must make good use of that opportunity.

Avoid discussing frivolous things with them, be precise, and go straight to the point. Let them know that you place value on their time. If you have an appointment with them, ensure you keep to time. Keeping your mentor waiting for you after you have fixed an appointment is not appropriate. If you must come late or an avoidable circumstance arises, kindly send a text message or place a call to inform them that you will be late for the appointment.

To stay in touch with your career mentors, it is wise to always send an appreciation message every time they grant you their audience or attention.

Read also: 5 Key Elements of Time Management for Optimum Results

Always take notes when your mentor is talking

Always take notes when your mentor is talking

Cute pupil writing at a desk in a classroom at the elementary school.

This is one of the master keys to staying in touch with your career mentors. Always take notes when they are talking to you. You are not a computer, so you cannot automatically remember everything your mentor will say to you.

Taking notes when your mentor is talking to you indicates that you value what your mentor is saying. The good thing about taking notes when your mentor is speaking is that it allows you to revisit those notes and get inspired again.

Keep them updated about your activities

One of the hallmarks of having a mentor is accountability. Updating your mentor about your career activities or engagements is a very good strategy that can help you to stay in touch with your career mentors in no small way. Don’t go about a project without informing them; their inputs and suggestions can save you a great deal.

The reason why you are called a mentee is that you desire to thread on a path that they have walked on before you. Informing them about your engagements will give them the opportunity to support and advise you on what to do to avoid mishaps as you go about your activities.

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Support your mentor

The relationship between you and your mentor should be beneficial to you and your mentor. Staying in touch with your career mentors will require that you support them in actualizing their dreams and goals.

Supporting your mentor will give you the leverage to come into his/her space and see how things are done firsthand. If your mentor is organizing an event, you can be a volunteer and contribute your own quota to the success of the event. If they have written a book, it is only wise to purchase those books and glean from their well of wisdom and expertise.

Make it a point of duty to find out what your mentor wants to achieve and support them in every way you can. Making work or projects easy for your career mentors will surely improve and strengthen the relationship between the both of you.

Read also: How to Support a Friend Through Difficulty

Always ask questions

a businessman raising his hand to ask the question in the office.

You only get answers when you ask questions.

Your career mentor already has deep insight and understanding in your career field; asking questions will help you to glean and grasp from their bank of wisdom and knowledge reservoir.

Proof that you are teachable will be seen in how you ask questions. Every opportunity to be in the same space with your mentor is an opportunity to grow.

When you master the art of asking questions, you will not be bankrupt in knowledge.

If you are unclear about anything, your mentor says, kindly ask him/her to give you clarification. It is unsafe to assume things or instructions from your mentor.

Always seek to understand what they are saying. Don’t be caught off guard.

Be attentive when they are speaking and ask questions when necessary.

Conclusion

In conclusion, remember that your career mentor is there to guide and lead you on a path you haven’t threaded before. Sometimes in guiding and leading you, they may have to correct or rebuke you. When they do this, don’t get offended; they are only trying to straighten you to make you a better version of yourself.

Always practice and keep these tips in mind to stay in touch with your career mentors.

Have you ever had a mentor? Is it an experience you’d like to share? Feel free to join Insight’s WhatsApp community for the best and most insightful conversations.

About Author

Daniel Yakubu

I am Daniel Yakubu, a professional freelance SEO content writer. I'm passionate about creating excellent and engaging SEO content.
I have worked with several brands and organizations to write informative articles that attract quality traffic to their websites.
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