Mentorship- finding, giving and receiving

[code1]

In my new field of work and company, I sense the need for an experienced and knowledgable mentor to guide me. Please advise on how to actively find a mentor external of one's company? What are the avenues for this.

Also, how many of you actually mentor and receive mentoring in today's time and age?

 

[vpl]

code1

One of the best ways to get external contacts is to join a technical society and go to the meetings.

In terms of mentoring (giving and receiving). I got the most from someone who was technically sharp and willing to help others without calling himself a "mentor". I try to emulate him. My company assigns mentors/mentees (is that a word?) but sometimes the fit isn't too good and it doesn't work out. I find that if I (as the mentor) always have to go to them, my interest goes way down.

Patricia Lougheed

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

Want to post an image? Look at the FAQ's in forum559

 

[Heckler]

Mentorship has somewhat gone away these days. I've worked with several senior engineers that were very reluctent to take newbies under there wing. I they were feeling replaced since the company at the time was hiring a lot of new grads. So since the company didn't have an official mentor program they didn't see the need to pass on any information. Early in my career I sought out a couple of mentors that I met at SAE meetings. I would start attending local CE professional organizations.

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 3.0 & Pro/E 2001
XP Pro SP2.0 P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

(In reference to David Beckham) "He can't kick with his left foot, he can't tackle, he can't head the ball and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that, he's all right." -- George Best

 

[prohammy]

To answer your second question.....

The world of engineering is becoming much more competative these days. You want to learn something, you better be prepared to look for it. There are very few companies/engineering departments that have the time and resources to hold somebody's hand (you are now working in a results driven climate that doesn't have a lot of time to wait around for you get good at your job).

If you have got a job in engineering, then I think it is reasonable to assume that the person who hired you thought you were competant and would able to learn/integrate with the minimum of effort/drain on the engineering department. The 'older' and more senior Engineers will have major time constraints because of their project deadlines. So show the managers what you can do. Be as involved as you can be without being in the way. Show that you can work things out on your own, and most importantly that you can get information to advance your knowledge (remember a well thought-out, precise question can save a thousand hours on the internet, and at the same time ingratiate you with senior personnel)

And finally, (like others have said) there are guys out there who will help you and there are guys out there who will see you as a threat. Finding out who is who is a very important first step to making sure that you look good in the end

Kevin

“It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." ~Author Unknown

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." ~Author Unknown

 

[MikeHalloran]

I have attended not more than ten professional society gatherings in 40 years. The site tours were great fun. The dinner meetings felt awkward, because most of the people who showed up were from the same large company, and I had no common ground with them, beyond hiring from or being in the same labor pool. We speak the same language, but their acronyms are opaque to outsiders, and we attach different meanings to the same common words.

Beyond that, I'd be careful about developing a relationship with anyone outside one's own company, for fear of giving away some tiny but commercially valuable piece of intelligence. It might be as nominally inconsequential as a personnel change in the Marketing department. Not even theft will get you fired faster. Note: news from the Engineering department has no great commercial value. Trade secrets do, and they may not be marked as such in any obvious way. Only idiots put actual important information in fluorescently colored interoffice envelopes marked 'important'.

You can learn a lot from the tradespeople at any outfit. They may not understand the math behind what they do, but they understand the physics right where they touch the world.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Ashereng]

How to find a mentor external to your current company?
A: One of your old bosses that you like.

Also, how many of you actually mentor and receive mentoring in today's time and age?
A: Yes to both sides.

Yes I am old. However, a mentor does not need to be someone older than I - merely someone that can help me. Conversely, a mentee (is that a word?) does not need to be someone younger than I - merely someone that wants to hear me.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Theophilus]

This is something I think is very valuable, but unfortunately disappearing from the mainstream. I wish I had such a mentor when I was starting out. As it was, I gleaned as much as I could from coworkers and my bosses.

I have two communities of face-to-face meeting opportunities--one through a SolidWorks user group (varied folks attend) and the other the local IDSA chapter (both of which I rarely make time to attend). I also volunteer as a mentor at ASU, since when I was a student this is something I would have jumped at with frothing mouth (a "REAL" professional instead of an academic--WOW). This has been very rewarding, although we are matched by the university, so mismatches occur (as Patricia stated above).

There's also this place (HA!). I post a lot at the SolidWorks forum. Others extend this into blogs and tutorials, although that's a tad off-track (but perhaps folks are more often becoming these virtual mentors today?).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[graybeach]

I am an "old" engineer, and I find that each project has certain intricacies that I did not think about up front. Generally, I never know what I am doing until I get into the work.

So, when I give an assignment to a junior engineer, I cannot just hand them a cook book or tell them exactly how to do things. They have to get into the intricacies of the work and educate me. How they do this is by asking questions. And not questions like, "what should I do?" But questions that show that they are thinking deeply. 9 times out 10 such questions point out something I did not consider. The mentoring comes in when the lead engineer says, "Hmmm, you are right; the initial concept won't work. Now, what can we do about this. Try this and that..." Another thing good questions do is show the lead engineer how the work is progressing without him or her having to breathe down the junior engineer's neck.

The worst thing a junior engineer can do is just hole themself away with an assignment. The "finished product" in this case is almost always off the mark.

When you ask questions, it might happen that some people are dismissive or get annoyed. It may be a problem with the way you ask questions, or the senior engineer might be frustrated that the concept does not work. It can also happen that the senior engineer is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. The junior engineer has to wade through all this and learn.

 

[EddyC]

I'll quote the literature from a steam trap vendor:

"Knowledge Not Shared Is Energy Wasted"

I've unfortunately worked for several firms that wasted energy.