Whether you start your career right off the bat out of high school, after tertiary studies, or much later in life, there is no guide or text book to help you navigate what could be a complicated career journey. Fortunately, having real time-in office mentorship is not only practical and cost effective, but the experience to be gained is unparalleled.

While you may still need to earn experience in the work place, the knowledge gap between a junior employee and long term or senior employee is not only expectedly vast, but could be quite problematic if not addressed correctly.

Practically speaking, a mentorship, is not only good for the mentee, but also for the mentor as both parties will gain a benefit from the experience. Every environment that you may find yourself in on your career journey will have its own unique challenges, and individual mentorships are a great way to offer both support and training.

A typical mentor-mentee relationship could last 9 months or longer, and having an ally you can trust, will help you to objectively develop the correct skills needed to augment your training, with the added bonus of growing your professional network.

Having a mentor to learn valuable company specific technical details from, is an asset when it comes to expanding your knowledge base. Whether you are fortunate to have one mentor or various mentors throughout the course of your career journey, having that one on one instruction from a senior colleague willing to guide you, will be invaluable, and most mentorships will continue long after you may move onto a new company or career.

On starting your career you may not have a clear vision of your end game, but having a mentor will broaden your perspective and help you make decisions that are to the benefit of your career choices.