Everyone needs a mentor, but when it comes to being one yourself, many people don’t trust their own skills and instincts. Mentorship is not a one-way street, mentors benefit from a good relationship as well.

Everyone needs a mentor, but when it comes to being one yourself, many people don’t trust their own skills and instincts. Mentorship is not a one-way street, mentors benefit from a good relationship as well.

Learning by Teaching

It’s no secret that a good way to learn something is to teach it. In order to teach something, you have to thoroughly understand it. Teachers are not born to be amazing at their craft, they studied hard, collected experience and put those skills in concrete by teaching them to others.

Not only hard skills are valuable. Especially in tech, soft skills are just as valuable, if not even more. Being a mentor and taking mentorships seriously shapes and polishes your soft skills. Teaching is an amazing way to level up your communication skills, but also your patience with others. If somebody makes a mistake, mentors can overcome that, and help people reach their full potential.

Realizing something? Those are skills that people in leadership positions need as well - and that’s exactly why employers absolutely love to hire and promote mentors. Being a mentor for others, being responsible for someone is a great way to become a successful manager and leader as well.

Employers love to hire mentors

That is exactly the reason why employers love to hire mentors. The modern employer looks for a few attributes in a leader:

Someone who is able to push other people forward Someone who is organized and can work under pressure Someone who takes responsibility for their actions

These are also attributes that relate to being a mentor. When you are a mentor, your job is to push your mentee forward and get them to the next level. It’s a very self-less act and extremely powerful.

You also need to keep track of what your mentee does, organize questions and problems and make sure that mentees can hit their targeted goals. Especially when it comes to situations where a mentee works towards a deadline, such as an interview, or is under financial strain, that really puts things into perspective.

Finally, you are solely responsible for what you teach your mentee. Many goals can be reached with a realistic timeline, accountability and a good path, and it is now your job to make it realistic. That doesn’t mean that your mentee is out of the equation, but if your mentee fails, it’s your failure as well, just like as a manager.

All these attributes correlate strongly with building and running a team of your own, and building these attributes can help you in your career.

Building a Network

You’re going to get in touch with dozens of people from different walks of life. In some cases, you’ll stay in touch with them for a year or longer. Mentorship is a great opportunity to extend your network with people you would have never met otherwise.

It’s always valuable to remain in touch with smart people, and having a mentee is no exception to that. If you’re mentoring over a longer period of time, you’ll start helping people grow into unique positions and roles. Something that’ll be valuable to you in the long run as well!

A big loose network is worthless, but a small tightly-knit one is extremely valuable. Working with a few dozen mentees over the years allows you to be part of a network where people are extremely thankful for you and your actions. It’s almost guaranteed that one of your mentees will be able to help you out at some point.

Put a dent in the universe

Finally, mentorship is an extremely great way to impact the lives and universes of other people. Our mentees have found new careers, gotten out of really bad life situations, broken their habits and become successful thanks to their mentors.

Being a mentor will give you the power to produce stories like these, help people in the most direct way possible and make a difference. If that isn’t an argument…

Sounds interesting? At MentorCruise, we’re always looking for mentors. Apply now at mentorcruise.com/mentor/.