In my career, I meet with my supervisor once per week. I also have been in a mentoring program since earlier this year in which I meet with a person once a month who works in this organization but in a completely different area. In addition to this, I was recently selected for another program which involves companies throughout Michigan. I have a mentor in that program also. I have met with her once so far and will continue to meet with her monthly for about six months.

I consider myself to be a pretty independent person so meeting with this many people seems a bit much to me. Meeting only with my supervisor would probably be sufficient although there are advantages to meeting with people outside my immediate work area. The other person I meet with from my organization is probably too busy to be a mentor but neither of us mind going out to lunch once a month. Our conversations are not particularly deep but that is okay.

I think my most recent mentor wants badly to be involved and do a good job. Ideally, I should come to her with problems and she would help guide me through them. Unfortunately, I do not really know what I am going to ask her about yet. I will try to come up with something before our next meeting.

I have had two people I considered mentors in my adult life. One started in college, the other about five years ago. I think one aspect that helped each relationship was that I knew each of them for about a year before I even started to think of them as being a mentor. I have spent less than two hours so far with my most recent mentor. I suppose I could start e-mailing and calling her in preparation for our next meeting but that would feel forced rather than letting the relationship build in a natural fashion.


Have you ever had a mentor? If so, what do you think led to either the success or failure of that relationship? I would welcome any other thoughts you may have.