Im looking for a mentor

I am a strong believer in knowledge sharing and mentorship, having instituted cross-training and similar programs within my own and other departments. The key to this sort of interaction is making it a WIN/WIN. In other words, if you want to take advantage of someone else's knowledge and experience, what are you offering in return?

Philanthropy is one thing, but if there is no gain for the mentor, what is the point? It soon becomes a drain. I am proud of the people that I have mentored, however they are also proud, as they had the opportunity to teach the old dog a few new tricks as well. My most recent work was with a friend that had been a manager in Zellers, a local department store. He lost his job, and decided to explore his interest in computers. I helped him with a networking course that we both had enrolled in. He asked me to teach him what I know, and in return he instructed me in karate since he is a black-belt.

Well, it has been 8 years. He is now a Senior ITmanager for a multi-national computer security company, and doing very well. I managed to get as far as green belt in karate before my knees gave out. But I had fun, made some new friends, and had more joy in my life because of it.

So, tell me kohi (small man) webmaster, what do you bring to Sensei? (Teacher)

From my experiance, the mentor / protoge relationship works best if you are near each other.

My best personal experiances have been with co-workers at the same firm.

If that is not an option, use the discussion center and Q&A forums here at Tech Republic.

If you word your questions specifically enough, you will get a lot of input.

Chas

First of all I have to say that, in my opinion, a mentor is vastly different than a trainer. A trainer will share knowledge and experience, and probably expect something in return (but not always). A mentor will fall into one of two camps. Perhaps one type of mentor is someone assigned (or just falls into place) to temporarily show you the ropes, so to speak.
But another kind of mentor is one who will share wisdom and vision – not necessarily associated with one’s profession - butas it pertains to living life, setting goals, and the like. And a true mentor will neither want nor expect anything in return for offering that guidance and wisdom to a fledgling professional. Satisfaction in seeing someone succeed and do good things will be reward enough. In addition, most mentors see helping/guiding someone else as a way of paying something back – or more accurately, paying it "forward". For example, I do something for you, but instead of you paying me back, per se, youpay that "debt" to someone else who subsequently pays someone else, and so on. Paying it forward. Passing it on.

To specifically answer your question, finding a mentor can take several paths. A mentor doesn't necessarily have to know that he/she is being a mentor. You don't even have to personally know your mentor. (For example, some of my mentors are Billy Graham and George W. Bush - neither of whom I've ever met.) Find someone who has traits you'd like to emulate, and then emulate them. It's kind of like, "I'd like to grow (or grow up) to be like so-and-so.” Some people may already be a mentor to you, and you don’t even realize it. (A parent, big brother/sister, coach, friend/acquaintance you admire, etc.) Then again, there may be cases where there is a person specifically designated - or maybe just fall into – a mentorship with someone. Many organizations, for example, have such mentor progra

Mentor: a sage who takes an apprentice under his wing and teaches.

Steward: One who promotes and provides care for a doctrine or discipline through his own actions. One who keeps his house in order.

Are you a steward? If you desire to be mentored then you must also be willing to be a steward and mentor others.