Ask HN: How to Find a Mentor? I'm a computer vision engineer at a pre-seed startup in London. I feel stuck. I have a lot of drive but I'm not sure what to focus on. I enjoy my work at the company but would like to grow financially. I believe I need some guidance. Do you have a mentor? How did you find one? What are the steps that I can take to find a mentor? |
Beyond that I'd take this approach, which is what I did when I moved to Los Angeles and had no connections to the tv/film industry there but worked for 5 years in broadcast industry.
I found a fb group of TV producers. I saw the names of the active people, researched them on IMDB (you might need LinkedIn) and then reached out privately. Asked them if I could buy them coffee at their favorite coffee ship and they just tell me about how they got the career they got.
Every person I met was incredible. So forthcoming and open. They truly all wanted to give advice to basically "pay it forward". I got great tips and techniques to find jobs as someone with no local experience, but had some work experience.
The best advice I got was "When you get your first job, your job then is to get a 2nd job. Someone you work with will be the person who gets you that 2nd job. You don't know if they are an early person or a late person. Be the first one in the office and the last one to leave the office. No matter what, the person who will get you that next job will be there and see you are there before them and after them.
You can find people now in any city, online. Twitter, LinkedIn, HackerNews. Find some signal that they either are working and talking about their work, or signal that they are sharing advice. Then DM them. Email them. And talk. Don't need to ask to be mentored. Just start by talking. Asking them how they got to where they are at.
one last thing, I would follow up a week later, about something they said, something they recommended to do. No matter if you fail or succeed within a week follow up. And then ask "based on our conversation, who is one person you think I should talk to?" That was pure gold to get more and more meetings and meet people outside of my own bubble.
One of my mentors I met organically, the other one formally. So IMHO the two best ways I know to find mentors are:
• Organically: Talk to lots and lots of people. Especially in real-world situations. Attending events which you enjoy, whether work-related or not, is also a great place to meet potential mentors.
* Formally: Look around online and ask friends if they can recommend a coach / mentor. (I'm a mentor and coach myself). Talk to a few people and see if you find someone with a potential fit. Most coaches will offer the first session for free (I do as well).
Hope that helps. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat.
I think one way of finding a mentor is to ask someone that you want to become more like, that typically work as a manager or in a position where they want people to succeed, to mentor you. Keep asking people until you get a "yes". This is probably also easier in a larger organization.
Best of luck.