3 Ways to Find a Mentor

1.Sign Up For A Mentorship Program

Mentorship programs can be a great option for someone who's never had a mentor before and doesn’t know what to expect out of a mentor-mentee relationship. It is also the easiest way to find a mentor

The 2 drawbacks to this approach are:

1. Only certain companies open these programs to the public

2. The mentor assigned to you may not be a good fit

That being said, all of the Mentorship programs I've participated in, like the Citibank mentorship program(Citibank Early ID Program), were amazing. I learned so much about modern technologies like cloud computing/big data and built a really great relationship with my mentor throughout the program.

While the Citibank Early ID Program is only open to certain underrepresented groups in tech, there might be a partnership at your school with a company that offers general mentorship programs.

For example my college offers a mentorship program that I am currently a part of with Northrop Grumman.

2. Ask A Professor

Asking a college professor to be your mentor can be a really great way to build a relationship with somebody who's established at the university and somebody who's already invested in seeing you grow.

Most teachers choose their professions because they love to teach, see students grow and watch them learn new things throughout the year.

A good rule of thumb is to ask for 15 - 30 minute meetings to start out your mentoring relationship and to clearly define how you hope to grow as a result of the mentorship.

How long professors will be willing to spend with you depends on their availability, what you ask for, and what relationship you already have with the professor.

For example, if it’s a professor you talked to before and after class it will probably be much easier to ask for mentorship than a professor for whose class you were silent in or where you were caught on your phone.

3. Cold Approach A Stranger

Cold approaching a stranger is the hardest way to get a mentor, but it doesn't have to be. The approach you take in asking a stranger to be your mentor, can impact the quality of the interaction and the success of your request.

People walk up to strangers and ask, “Will you be my mentor? I like your website” or something similar where they just cold approach them and say, “Hey I want you to mentor me. Invest a lot of time in me.”

Chances are if you want someone to mentor you and they’re a stranger they probably already know that they're really cool and they don't need you to tell them by reaffirming that their project/company is cool.

The best way that I found to make a complete stranger one of your mentors is to introduce yourself and ask them a question on LinkedIn.

Say something like, “Hi I am a student studying ____ I’m interested in ____ and have worked on several projects using ____ technology. I noticed you also work with ____. I would love to learn more about your career path. Hope to connect and ask you more about ____”, You don’t need to use exactly that message. But you get the idea of marketing yourself, connecting over a shared interest and asking something that you are genuinely interested about.

And then if they give you any kind of advice make sure that you follow it and show them that quantifiably it's making you better or it's changing your life because the worst part of being a mentor is giving advice to someone who isn’t following any of it.

The best way you can show this person that you're worth investing in is by showing them you're consistent and you actually value their advice and time.

Going along with that, if they do eventually concede to having a meeting with you make sure that you're at that meeting on time and make sure that you're mindful of their time, don't ask them 10 different questions when there's only one minute left in the meeting.

Unless they say it's okay to go over time in which case feel it out and see what they're comfortable with.

And remember the goal of a mentor, mentee relationship is for you to grow and for them to be able to give back to people.

So when you do get a mentor make sure to ask about things that you actually care about and make sure they know that they are making a difference in your life. (if they aren't the mentorship isn’t working out you can always break up :()

And finally when the meeting is over, show gratitude!