Mastering the Career Journey: Mentorship as Your Guiding Light

I met my mentor, Chinmoy Chakraborty, when I was running my startup back in 2017. Back then, all I needed was someone who could help me solve the biggest hurdles in building an MVP and take it to the market. But little did I know that our interactions in 2017 would continue even in 2024. In the last 7 years, we have successfully built a healthy and fruitful mentor-mentee relationship. Over the years, Chinmoy has not only helped me with my startup, but also has proven to be a guiding light when it came to making some of the most difficult decisions of my career and professional life. From identifying a target audience for the MVP at the startup to finalizing a school for pursuing my Master’s in Data Science at The University of Washington, his experience and guidance has been a major force behind my journey and success.

Now, turning our attention to the present, the advent of Generative AI has brought a lot of noise with it. There are new tools and technologies being released every single day and are being termed as “the next big thing”. All of this has left a lot of people with a feeling of “cluelessness” and “fear of missing out”. And if this wasn’t enough, recent layoffs and hiring-freeze have made things even worse. My interactions with a lot of my peers and acquaintances are proof of this feeling. This is where mentors can play a crucial role and this is the crux of this post- having a mentor, preferably an industry veteran, who can guide you in shaping your professional career and in crucial decision-making.

How can mentors help you with the two aforementioned challenges?
It’s really simple if you think about it. They’ve lived through the highs and lows of professional life and have gathered invaluable first-hand (often painful) experience. They made mistakes in their career and have taken a lot of efforts to rectify them. They have more experience when it comes to filtering out noise. They have made a lot of right decisions at the right time. And they did all of this before you. What does this mean? This means that they are the perfect people to help you avoid making those same mistakes and persevere through the most difficult times. This also means that, with their help, you get an opportunity to discover the best version of yourself.

So, I highly encourage each one of you to find a mentor for yourself. At the very least, I hope you will develop a good friendship and at best, your mentor may help you steer your career in a more “frictionless” manner. Now the main question- how do you go about finding and approaching someone to be your mentor? I feel this article is already long enough. So, I’ll be writing another one highlighting some of the most important DOs and DONTs when looking for a mentor.

Stay tuned!