Engineers spend years gathering arsenals of career knowledge specific to their jobs, their fields, and their personal experiences. That knowledge helps them get raises, find new jobs, and continue building their education to greater heights. But a large portion of that knowledge is also wasted.
Many engineering firms have discovered the value of mentorship. Mentorship allows experienced engineers to take rookies under their wing, imparting the hard earned knowledge that has helped them excel to a new generation of innovators. But mentorship doesn’t just benefit the protege, it also develops the mentor’s career.
Benefits of Mentorship
Mentorship provides education. Imparting your knowledge of design, project management, and even company culture can change a protege’s career. But, believe it or not, mentorship is a two way street. Mentors can learn innovative thinking, fresh approaches to old problems, and new time management skills from Millennial engineers.- Mentorship encourages networking. Developing close relationships with younger coworkers allows both parties to expand their professional networks. Not only will both mentor and protege introduce each other to their own networks of engineers, building a close connection with a coworker builds overall networking skills, making both engineers more likely to make connections at work functions, industry events, and educational seminars.
- Mentoring develops leaderships skills. It’s clear what skills a protege gets out of a mentorship relationship, but what about the mentor? Mentoring an up-and-comer helps established engineers develop crucial leadership abilities that don’t come naturally to most engineers: communication and people management.
At Engineering Search Partners we’re dedicated to mentoring engineers through career transitions. Call us for niche engineering opportunities, interview coaching, and on-boarding assistance.