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Having a mentor can be a great way to help develop your career for the long term.

A mentor is simply someone who acts as a teacher and counselor and in the context of your career, is someone you can speak with to gain career advice from.

They could be someone you work with who is at a later stage of their career than you are - perhaps they are your manager, maybe they are someone who you have worked with in the past who you still keep in touch with.

They are someone who takes you under their wing and provides advice to help you move your career in the right direction.

From their perspective, the benefit they get is the satisfaction of helping you out and knowing that they are someone whose opinion you hold in high regard.

Many experienced people would love to share their knowledge with you and possibly help you avoid some of the mistakes they made earlier in their career.

Maybe they are people who simply want to give back to their industry and mentoring is an effective way for them to do so.

How To Find A Mentor

Sometimes, you find might that you already have someone who is acting as your mentor * or someone who could be * without you even consciously thinking about it.

Perhaps you already have someone who you sometimes approach for career advice, someone who you hold in high regard.

Again, it could be someone you work with currently or have worked with (or worked for) in the past.

If no one comes to mind, think of someone who you work with currently who is more experienced than you, who you hold in high regard and who you feel you could learn from.

Approach them and ask if they*d consider being your mentor. If they aren*t sure what you mean, simply let them know that you value their advice and ask if they would be willing to share some of their knowledge with you.

The worst they can say is no.

If this doesn*t work, you could always search for professional mentoring programs in your city, industry or profession. You might find a professional organization related to your industry or profession that could at least point you in the right direction of a suitable program.