How Riding Waves Can Teach Us the Importance of Mentoring

My name is Anthony Fasano and a few years ago, I decided to transition my engineering career from designing to inspiring engineers. One of the key elements of career success that I try to convey to engineers is the importance of finding a mentor. Mentoring is especially on my mind because this past week I was on the beach with my four-year-old daughter and she was able to simply convey to me the power of mentorship in a few minutes, which is something I have been trying to convey to engineers for years. She asked me if I would come down to the water with her so she could go swimming. So, of course, I said yes and we went down to the ocean. She started riding in the waves, one after the next. I find myself sitting there watching daughter ride waves as if she had been doing it her whole life. Finally, I asked, "Brianna, how did you learn to ride the waves like that?" She looked at me, with an innocent four-year-old smile and said, "Daddy! I just watched some other people who were doing it." She then turned around, ran back into the water and proceeded to have the time of her life. I stood there for the next hour or so, thinking about how a four-year-old just showed me in five minutes what I have been trying to convey to engineers for a few years now. A good mentor can have a tremendous impact on your career. Actually, I should say a mentor that is a good match for you. There is no good or bad mentor. It's up to you to find someone who shares similar goals, or better yet, who has already accomplished goals you're striving for. You don't have to reinvent the wheel in your engineering career. Just like my daughter learning to ride the waves, you don't have to figure out how to become a good project manager--just watch or talk to someone who has already become one. If you have matched yourself with the right mentor, he or she will be able to answer all or most of your career development questions, since they have already walked down a very similar career path.

Finding a mentor

So now that I have (hopefully) convinced you to find a mentor, how do you go about doing it? Here are some simple steps that you can follow:

1. Check with your company's human resources department, as many firms have formal mentoring programs.
2. If there is no formal program, ask your supervisors and coworkers if they know of anyone who has mentored, or may be interested in mentoring, a developing engineer. Be careful about asking your direct supervisor to be your mentor, as you already have a lot of interaction with this person; adding a mentoring aspect to the relationship could make your working relations somewhat overbearing.
3. If you can't find a mentor within your company, check with your local professional engineering societies.
4. If you still can't find a mentor through any of these sources, you can always turn to the Internet. While it would be nice to have a person specifically recommended to you, there are plenty of engineering forums where you can connect with people who may be a good match. For example, you can use the social networking site LinkedIn to perform an advanced search by zip code for mentors in your area.

Yes, it may take some time and effort to find a mentor who is a good match, but if you do your research and select the right person, he or she can have a profoundly positive impact on your career. If you don't find the right person the first time, try again. There are so many people out there that want to help you--you just have to ask! I wish you the best in finding a mentor and hope that by emulating your mentor you will have the time of your life in your career, just as my daughter did riding in the waves!

Do you have a story to share about how a mentor has helped your career?

Anthony Fasano, P.E., LEED AP is the founder of Powerful Purpose Associates and author of the Amazon.com bestselling book Engineer Your Own Success: 7 Key Elements to Creating an Extraordinary Engineering Career. You can contact Anthony through his websites PowerfulPurpose.com and EngineeringYourOwnSuccess.com, which both provide free career resources for engineers.

Photo: istockphoto.com (C) 2011 Anthony Fasano, used with permission