Peer Career Consultant Blogs

Introduction Finding the right mentor is an integral part of one’s career journey. Whether you choose to find a mentor in college, in your first job, or at any point throughout your career, these individuals will have quite possibly a larger impact than what you might think. A mentor can help expand your horizons, refer you to a job, or even help you navigate a totally different career path that you may otherwise never have considered before. 

What To Look For In a Mentor When looking for a Mentor, there are several things you should consider. The following are some factors that I consider to be essential when it comes to looking for a mentor:

1) Your Mentor Genuinely Cares For You and Wants to See You Succeed

For me, this is essential. At the end of the day, you want a mentor that can be honest with you and not tell you what you just want to hear. With your career path and decisions being of utmost importance, having a mentor that really wants to guide you along the right path is more essential than anything else.

2) Your Mentor Should Have Work Experiences That Generally Align With Your Interests

While I usually recommend you seek mentorship from those who will give you detailed and relevant advice on navigating a particular career path or industry that stems from their experiences, there are also examples of mentors that can help you navigate other careers that are unfamiliar. This mostly takes the form of more general advice or along similar lines, but at the same time you should remember that your mentors are there to give you advice, not to make decisions for you.

3) Your Mentor Should Be Someone You Are Comfortable With

At the end of the day, your Mentor should be someone you enjoy learning from and talking to. Being open and honest with your mentor will allow them to best help you in your own career journey.

Resources and Areas to Find Mentors

Now that you have an idea of what to look for in a Mentor, you may find yourself confused on where to start. Luckily for you, Santa Clara University has a plethora of resources to help you find the right mentor.

1) Organizations on Campus

Santa Clara University possesses a diverse community of individuals and organizations that can help students like yourself learn more about different careers in the business world. Moreover, these same organizations can give access to numerous upperclassmen and SCU alumni that are more than willing to assist and help you. For me, joining a professional co-ed business fraternity on campus allowed me to have the opportunity to reach out and seek advice from alumni who were once a part of the same organization during their time at SCU. Connecting with these people through Linkedin and eventually through casual conversation allowed me to seek mentorship from these people by which they helped me navigate different career options and even referred me to several different recruiters and job opportunities.

2) SCU Alumni Network on Linkedin

That being said, it is totally okay if you are not the type of person to join a professional co-ed business fraternity or an organization of that sort. In fact, the Santa Clara University Linkedin page can also be an extremely useful resource for students to reach out to upperclassmen and alumni who are working at companies or industries they are interested in. Just by connecting and scheduling a short coffee chat with an SCU Alumni can go a long way in establishing a professional relationship that can help you throughout your career. Also keep in mind that SCU alumni love talking to students so don’t feel intimidated or pressured to reach out!

3) Professors

The Leavey School of Business also has some really amazing professors out there and you should definitely take advantage by asking them for advice and mentorship. More often than not, these Professors have decades of experience in various industries in the business world and would love to help you in any sort of way such as referring you to professionals in their expansive network.