Some years ago, I was attending a networking event for students at a university where I had been a mentor for 5 years or so. The event was to connect undergraduates with local employers to ask about work experience and career opportunities. It was right at the beginning of the mentoring season and mentors had not yet been assigned their mentees. A former colleague, now a university lecturer was also there and she introduced me to one of her students. We chatted a little bit about my company, my role and potential graduate opportunities. Conscious that this was a networking event and one should therefore try to spend a little time with a lot of students rather than a lot of time with one, I brought the conversation to a close and said that if I could help her in any way, she should get in touch and I proffered a business card with my contact details on it. Now when you offer a business card to a student you don’t necessarily expect one back and yet, quick as a flash she handed me one of her own cards in return. It was beautifully simple and I remember it to this day. On the front it read: “My name is Juliette and I would love to work for your company” on the back were her contact details. What inspired genius! I’ve worked in sales for a long time but here was clearly someone who intuitively understood a lot about influencing skills and how to make a positive impression. I was struck by this proactive approach and thought that I would like to work with this student. So, on returning to my office I emailed the university careers service who coordinated the mentoring programme to express a preference to be allocated Juliette as my mentee.

In due course, I received the confirmation that we were to be paired and we embarked on a series of 1-2-1 mentoring sessions throughout the academic year which were fun and rewarding for both parties. Using our offices as a base, we refined her CV, polished her presentation skills, examined habits and behaviours in the workplace to guarantee an accelerated career growth and studied the proper way to set and achieve ones goals. Juliette was an industrious and ambitious individual and it is so much easier working with someone who has at least an outline of what they want to do after university. We took a tour of a couple of our ships and I even managed to fix her up with a few weeks work experience in our office. We spent a lot of time tailoring applications for specific career opportunities and preparing her for job interviews. One day, my email pinged with the sort of note every mentor loves receiving. It read simply: “I had a job interview today. I did everything you said and they’ve offered me the role!”
Juliette went on to graduate (with a First Class honours degree) and started out on the early stages of her career. She now lives in Stockholm. We have stayed in touch ever since and she still reaches out for advice when she comes to a decision point in her career development.

The funny thing was that on our last mentoring session, after we’d finished the topic of the day and were wrapping up the mentoring season, thanking each other for enthusiastic participation etc I mentioned how happy I was that I had chosen her as a mentee. She frowned for the briefest of moments and then corrected me. “No, I chose you!” It transpired, she had heard about me from a previous mentee and had made up her mind that I was the mentor for her. So that whole chance introduction at the networking event and handing over of her business card had been stage-managed from the beginning! I was not a little flattered that someone would go to such lengths but also very impressed. Clearly someone who knew what she wanted and how to go about getting it.
So I guess the learning from this is that if you identify something to be of value to you and your career ambitions, be prepared to think a little creatively about how to make sure you get it.

By Bob Dixon – Mentor at Mentornect (Mentor Stories #1)