Getting started in your career and don’t know where to begin? Having worked in tech for many years, I’ve learned that one of the keys to developing a great career in this industry is to seek out good mentorship. A good mentor can help you see the bigger picture and help push you towards career growth and development.
I’m very grateful to have had great mentors who have looked out for me. I've had different types of mentors at different times in my career and I really appreciated every single one of them because their feedback was absolutely essential in molding me into the leader I am today.
A particularly impactful piece of advice came from one mentor who told me, “If you’re in a rut, other people might notice and it’s in the way you approach things.” This comment really opened my eyes and helped me see that I needed to expand the opportunities that I had in order to develop new skills and avoid feeling bored. To do this, I sometimes moved laterally or even in a demoted capacity because I wanted to learn a new skill or talent, work with a particular mentor, or work with a high-performing team.
At another crucial point in my career, one of my favorite mentors said to me, “You know, Gio, a tree that grows skinny and tall easily snaps in a windstorm, but a tree that grows wide and tall is much more resilient to ambiguity, change, disappointment or even just a tough market.”
The lesson here was understanding that there is always a lot to learn, if you look for opportunities to do so. Conversations like these have really impacted my career development. It takes effort to seek out mentors, have tough conversations and reflect on yourself but investing in yourself will pay dividends throughout your career.
I’m grateful to have received this guidance as I grew in my profession, and I hope these pieces of advice can help your development as well.
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