img

How to ask for mentorship to someone you don't know personally

I know it's a topic covered extensively in blogs, but anyways want to know if anyone of you approached a respectable person for mentorship and journey to the other person agreeing/rejecting. PS: I'm looking for one being in the early stage of my career.

img

ElomDusk

InMobi

2 years ago

img

WryExile38

Swiggy

2 years ago

img

DrProduct

Amazon

2 years ago

Sign in to a Grapevine account for the full experience.

Discover More

Curated from across

img

Misc on

by Dhoni

Target

Mentorship | Experience vs Skills

Which one matters: Skills or Experience? Experience, and further the insights comes with multiple 'years of experience' only. On the other hand, 'skills' can be learnt. Who would you give preference to? I've been naive enough to think that what people with 10-20+ yoe is something that I can easily do. But nope, decision making is a completely different ball game. I got this thought when I came across youngsters charging money for 'mentorship' (PS: one off sessions, especially paid, is not how mentor-mentee relationship works). If folks without proper experience is mentoring, what exactly are they sharing? How to get to where they are? What would it take for anyone to get somewhere further ahead (where they themselves haven't been)? Just some 'skills' that mentees should get upskilled on? Skills are required, but so is experience as well. As they say, it's not the tool but you use it that makes the difference! So yes, what exactly are these young 'top mentors' talking about (or preching)? Nuances: yes, one can talk about everything that they have gone through up until then. But in this case, everything would be short term and not really helpful. One off sessions may work if it's just a Q&A or an AMA session. But that's not mentorship. Yes, time is money, and it's fine to charge for it. But is it really that they're valuing their time more, or the money? I have no hate against platforms like Topmate. As a platform, they're good. It's just how we make use of it that is not great. [I do mentor people. I just mentor 3-4 people, and has been doing that since 3-4 years). I have a few mentors as well. That has been going on since last 6+ years. None of those are paid. It's mutual respect and truly supporting others in their journey. I occasionally do the 'AMA or Q&A sessions + resume review as well'. Again free, but not under the disguise of 'mentorship'