Uncharted/Charted Territory : I Was Chosen

[Straight Success]

There’s a first time for everything.

So, throughout my professional career, both as an employee and as a(n) entrepreneur/SBO, I’ve never had a real solid stand-up mentor. I’ve always had to figure out things on my own and chart my own course. It’s been rocky and rough at times, but it’s help me become who I am today.

With the above being stated, I filled out a survey I received some time ago from my alma mater regarding a mentorship program. Well, I was informed this week I was chosen to be a mentor. I guess the people who are sitting on the board have faith in my ability or like the composition of my character – who knows? There are some heavy hitters (tenured professors and others) who sit on the board. Regardless, I will now be mentoring an engineering student with a goal of helping them further prepare for life and the real world. Just though I’d share with the community.

Any advice?

[deevergote]

Congrats!

I have no formal mentoring experience, but I do have some management and talent development experience that may translate.

The most important thing I’ve learned has been to listen and try to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and perspectives of those you’re teaching. Don’t try to mold someone to be a carbon copy of yourself. Give them the tools they need to succeed and understand as they are.

[Straight Success]

Congrats!

I have no formal mentoring experience, but I do have some management and talent development experience that may translate.

The most important thing I’ve learned has been to listen and try to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and perspectives of those you’re teaching. Don’t try to mold someone to be a carbon copy of yourself. Give them the tools they need to succeed and understand as they are.

I agree with everything you said to a tee, especially the part in bold. My plan is to offer my experiences, both positive and negative, the outcomes of those experiences based on my decisions, and my reflections as I now look back on certain situations. Reflections are what help me continue to grow and mature, and I want to make the growth process smoother and easier for my mentee by giving him tools and resources I had to acquire on my own; tools and resources that I wish I had obtained sooner rather than later.

[Fleetw00d]

Weird, the text in the OP is black, I had to select it to make it show up.

[Straight Success]

Weird, the text in the OP is black, I had to select it to make it show up.

All the text in every post I look at is black. I believe black is the default color for text. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is you're seeing on your end.

[cp[mike]]

Looks like it was copy/pasted from Word which carried the "black" font across, instead of just allowing it to be default. For most people, the site theme is a black background, which makes your text disappear. Sounds like you switched the theme to use the white background on your end.

[Straight Success]

My setting was on the 'Default Style' setting vs. the 'CB7Tuner Style' setting. On my screen, the background was light gray. That's how it looked on my monitor.

Thanks for the handy solution.