How To Find The Perfect MarTech Mentor
Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.
John Crosby
The value of a mentor cannot ever be overstated.
The fallacy that sits at the heart of most meritocratic systems of work and promotion is that your wider working, and mentor, network is something apart from your career ecosystem and that people gain success through hard work, grit, and solo determination. We could not disagree with this more.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg famously took strolls around his Palo Alto HQ with Steve Jobs prior to the latters passing, mining him for details on entrepreneurship and the future of tech. The Bill Gates/Warren Buffett Mentee/Mentor story is widely known. Michelle Obama was literally Barack’s mentor at the law firm she worked at while he was a summer associate. The mentoring system goes back as far as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, with strains of learning and development evolving through generations of philosophical individuals, diligently and generously adapting previous iterations of learning. Mentoring is as old as time, central to learning and essential for today's marketers, communicators and tech pros.
Everyone stands on the shoulders of a giant, in some form. MarTech, as a relatively “new” industry, is the love child of one of the most communicative and open of industries, (marketing) and one of the most iterative, fast-paced industries (tech). The melding together of these previously siloed professionals has created a new form of mentor and worker - technically proficient, but focussed on how tech augments language and communication.
Mentoring is also vitally important in retaining professionals within certain career paths or specific jobs within companies. Where workplace coaching is generally short-form quick fix advice and directive-led teaching and advice, mentoring is much more holistic, emotive and personal - it is the physical manifestation of knowledge retention.
Why are mentors important to MarTech professionals?
Mentoring is important for any industry, but Tech is a unique field. The speed of platform and development is staggering, and the industry is only expanding. Modern tech development is also famously iterative - learning is staged, tangible, mostly collaborative and never siloed. This means senior figures within the industry are, generally speaking, iterative by nature.
Mentoring should also be highly specific and targeted - you may find yourself gravitating towards different types of mentors at different stages of your career. Mentors are guides - holistic, professional and cultural - who provide knowledgeable insight into your industry and your own mindset, and tie them together through career narratives, advice, training or active skills development.
There is no set, perfect mentor. There is only the right mentor for you, and that is critical to understand while reaching out into the MarTech ether to seek guidance.
How easy is it to find mentors?
It all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish: what you want to learn should be your main consideration. You need to know why you’re reaching out, and you have to be open to interpretations, critical advice, iterative processes and guidance that comes in many forms.
Mentors are generally grounded in the very tech you also work in and with and the community you live in, so should be more contactable and relatable than those in other industries ie. via cohabited networks (LinkedIn, Medium, SubStack, GitHub etc), and physical networks (networking, advocacy networks, co-workers and ex-colleagues).
However, time is precious, and mentor time is valuable - you have to approach the process much like finding a job. You want to be specific, patient, diligent, quick to communicate and honest throughout.
How to prepare for a mentor
Analyze what you want, and qualify what you need to get there. You need to be tangible in your goal setting, and clear in your objectives. Remember the mentor relationship is two-way!
Build a mentor goal guide
When you reach out to your mentor, you want to ally your approach to goals - it doesn’t have to be a career defining goal, or a huge target to hit, it could be something as simple as “how did you get where you are?” But you do need to qualify what you want to achieve through your mentor relationship.
Be honest and clear in your intentions
Don’t demand or cajole - be patient, be direct and be clear in your objectives, and similar to career-oriented goal setting, try and think about the type of mentor you want to have. Do you want someone from within your demographic, age group or profession? Or are you looking for a new, alternate view on your career and industry approach?
Final Thoughts
Mentoring is one of the many physical forms of career development oriented around your network. It requires humility, time, and long-term commitment, but the payoff is more than worth it.
