Ask a Mentor: Too Old For a Mentor? Degrees and Careers?

Got your own career conundrum you’d like advice on?

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Compiled and edited by Julie Tereshchuk

Dear Mentors,
Am I too old for a mentor?
Yours, Ms. ACertainAge

Dear Ms. ACertainAge,

No matter your age, stage of education, years of experience, career position, or your familiarity with other fields, you can and must continue to grow.

Having a mentor can help you find a fresh perspective; think through your ideas and plans; prevent you from making mistakes; inspire you to start something new, or make your current work more meaningful. The WCA program offers volunteer mentors who have all levels of experience as communicators and are willing to give their time, honesty and opinions because they share a commitment to giving back while juggling their own careers. Often times, asking your peers and friends is a good way to go because they have been there.

In a nutshell, benefitting from others’ support and knowledge can change the course of your career.

Yours, Jane Baxter Lynn

Dear Mentors,
How did your degree help get you to where you are today?
Yours, Ms. Curious

Dear Ms. Curious,

The people I most want to emulate (to this day) often have non-linear and odd career paths. My degree was only the beginning!

I graduated and moved to Austin in the dot-com bust and had a tough time finding anything relevant to my degree. I took a job in retail and ended up managing two stores and traveling with the owner to select the merchandise mix. Then I took a job as a secretary at a local publication and worked my tail off to get four promotions in two years, leaving with a wealth of sales, marketing, and event planning experience.

My advice is to try anything that seems interesting, and do it with energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm. Everything is a learning experience.

Yours, Jenny Magic

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“What Happened Next: Ask a Mentor Follow-Up”

[Editor’s note: this is a real-life WCA mentor story, although we’ve withheld names to respect the privacy of those involved.]

I Found My Footing

Back Story: 

The WCA member, in her mid-20s and new to Austin, reached out to the mentor chair for guidance on organizing a large workload. She was initially paired with one mentor who referred her to another she thought would be a better fit. As chance has it, the recommended mentor was hired as a contractor for the mentee’s employer a few years back. This allowed the mentor to provide advice based on her insights from working with the organization. 

The mentee asked for support to “find her footing” in her new role.

What Happened Next:

In the mentee’s own words, “Your insight was not what I expected to hear, but it’s what I needed to hear. I was trying to do too much, and I needed to hear it from someone who has been there and who could be objective.”

Within days of meeting, the mentee resolved to: prioritize herself by making her new house a home, realizing if she didn’t have her “private life together, there was no way her work life could survive;” populate a productivity app to manage tasks (personal and work) and to stop using her email for storage; reduce her volunteer commitments; make exercise and eating a priority; automate her work tasks; and front-load her working hours to get ahead of her manager’s expectations.