If you’re a college student, a recent graduate, or an early career professional, you’ve probably had the value of mentorship and networking drilled into your head. While mentors are undoubtedly an asset, mentorship can be a big commitment for both mentors and mentees. As for networking, many early career folks also find it to be off putting and superficial. Is there an alternative or in-between?
Instead of approaching professional relationships through the lens of mentorship or networking alone, I believe many of my peers could benefit from building and maintaining a network of advisers. In this post, I share my thoughts on the benefits of advisership and my four best practices for building your own network of advisers.
What is an adviser?
In the summer before my senior year of college, I started working part-time as a customer service agent at an edtech nonprofit. There, I reached out to a handful of co-workers and invited each to coffee. Instead of approaching these exchanges as one-off opportunities, I reached out to each co-worker again and set up a habit of meeting one-on-one every few weeks. During our chats, we talked about the work that they do, my professional goals, and my thoughts on my impending post-grad life. Over the course of my senior year, I would reach out to the same team of folks for advice over and over again. My team of co-workers cheered me along and were more than happy to help as I geared up for full-time work life.
This experience was my first step towards building a network of advisers. Unlike mentorship, advisership is a lightweight and flexible way of building and maintaining a relationship with a more experienced professional. A person might become an adviser if they do not have the time or bandwidth to commit to being a mentor but are still willing to share resources and advice as needed. I go to my advisers when I need help troubleshooting challenges, and when I’m looking for insight about different kinds of work. My advisers have a wide range of experiences and backgrounds and often function as thought partners on improving work projects, navigating professional life and making career moves. Unlike mentorships, advisorships generally require less checking in and are more loosely structured, making the relationship more manageable and less time-intensive. Additionally, by building a team of advisers, young professionals can explore different career ecosystems and see how they operate without devoting themselves entirely to part-time or full-time experiences. My advisers also boost my confidence and provide much needed encouragement in times of stress or doubt.
Having a team/network/crew/wolfpack of advisers is one of the best ways to crowdsource early career advice. After graduation, I was moved by how generous my ed tech nonprofit advisers were and kept up with most of them even after my professional life took off. Inspired by my success at the edtech nonprofit, I began replicating my efforts both inside and outside of my new place of work, building out my network across sectors and experience levels. I leveraged my college alumni network and asked for referrals from existing advisers. If someone I had a chat with offered to connect me with someone else, I always said yes. As a result, my team of advisers grew exponentially and were instrumental in helping me find the right next step during my phase of recent unemployment.
Interested in developing your own network of advisers? Here are four of my best practices:
Invite the people who interest you for a chat
- Schedule regular 1:1s with coworkers. Regardless of where you are (internship, work, event, conference etc.) identify someone who is of interest to you and ask them if they would be open to chat sometime about their career journey or a topic of interest. If this is a work or internship context and you’re guaranteed to see this person again, invite them to coffee and then follow up with subsequent invites. For example, at my edtech nonprofit, I reached out to an associate-level colleague who had just presented on a new feature to our website. I was so fascinated by her presentation that I reached out and asked if we could go for a walk around the building to talk about her work. Similarly, on my first day on the job, a co-worker said hi to me in the elevator and we spoke for a moment before parting ways. Even though our initial touch points were brief, I found value in these exchanges and we continued to sync-up every few weeks for a year. Both of these co-workers would go on to be some of my oldest and closest advisers.
- Set up informational interviews as a habit. If you’re in at an event or conference, get into the habit of identifying 1–2 people of interest who would be nice to chat with. The person you invite to chat will likely ask that you reach out to them to set up a time to chat. I recommend asking for their contact information so that you can ensure that there’s follow up. Email them within 24 hours with context about the conversation and a quick ask. I like to ask for 15–20 minutes of their time via phone call or an in-person chat, whichever is more convenient for them. Be flexible in how the person you reach out to responds and don’t stress if it takes them a while or even if they never get back to you! Just practicing this type of friendly and inquisitive outreach is worth the effort, especially if you’re early career and prone to feeling self-conscious or shy about putting yourself out there. More often than not, folks are responsive and aim to be as generous as possible.
Be an active learner
- Adapt language that you admire. There are a number of ways to learn from the person you chat with besides their advice. Sometimes advisers will share repetitive or seemingly obvious advice. While it can be tempting to dismiss these moments, I find it helpful to listen closely for patterns in the advice that different advisers would share. In addition, I not only pay attention to what an adviser says, but how they say it. I make note of the exact language that an adviser uses to illustrate a point, encourage me, or to frame a challenge. Paying attention to the language my advisers use and how they express themselves helped me polish my professional speaking skills. If someone uses a phrase that I like, I write it down and see if the same phrase can be applied to my own self-reflection or to describe my own actions.
- Model professional behavior and engagement. Something that struck me from my first “cohort” of advisers was how much I learned from observing how they treated me. Supportive advisers express an equal interest in who I am and what my goals are, and always encourage me if I share any doubts. Their treatment taught me how to treat underclassmen who would later seek out my advice. Unlike mentors, who can only model a few different professional behaviors, having a team of advisers offers a wider sample size to pick and choose inspirational language or behaviors from.
- Have humility. Early career folks tend to psych themselves out from asking a colleague to coffee because they are afraid of wasting their colleagues’ time. But if you approach the conversation with an open and curious mindset, you can make your interaction with a potential adviser both reciprocal and rewarding. To do so, always assume that the person you’re speaking to can teach you something. Express that assumption by mirroring their advice (repeat their advice back to them in your own words to check whether you really understood their suggestion) or by asking thoughtful follow up questions. Research the background of the person you want to speak with and brainstorm questions based on what you find. One benefit of being an early career professional is that the likelihood that you really know anything about what anyone else does for a living is low. That means there’s always a lot to learn from the experienced professionals around you! Being modest doesn’t mean you have to apologize for what you don’t know. But you should do everything in your power to ensure that your treat your adviser with respect. Keep your appointments, inconvenience yourself rather than them when necessary, and always be mindful of their time and energy.
- Actually try/read/do what they suggest. If an adviser recommends that you do something (talk to someone else in or outside of your organization, read an article etc.), say yes and then actually follow up on the suggestion. Again, the content of what they share may even already be on your radar. But if you approach these moments with humility, you’ll remember that there’s still something to learn from every resource shared. If anything, there’s usually a story behind why an adviser shared a certain resource that’s worth starting a conversation about.
Keep track of your engagement
- Automate what you can, take note of what you can’t. When I began building out my network of advisers, I used Slack to keep track of the advice and links that advisers would share with me. After our coffee or walk, I would dump everything that stood out to me about our conversation into my personal Slack channel. I also used Slack’s “/remind” feature to ping me every 3–4 weeks so I wouldn’t forget to schedule a new coffee chat. Nowadays, I use a combination of Google Keep and Google sheets to keep track of who I’m talking to and in what context. Dumping notes about a conversation into Google Keep is useful for reference when I want to reach out to an adviser again or if I want to go back to a resource that they suggested. A quick look on Linkedin or Twitter are also great places for understanding an adviser’s background, interests, and potential connections.
Follow up with gratitude
- Say thank you. After you’ve had your first chat with a potential adviser, be sure to follow up with a thank you and quick recap about what you’ve learned from the conversation. If they are a co-worker, it’s worth using the snooze function in Gmail or the Boomerang app to ping you when it’s time to schedule a follow up chat. If a potential adviser hasn’t responded to an email or invitation or chat, use these features to reminder yourself to nudge them and let them know that you’re still interested in speaking.
- Keep in touch. If you’ve already built a relationship with an adviser, be sure to touch base with them at some frequency. I like to send email updates roughly every 2–6 months, depending on the relationship. The timing will vary according to what you’ve shared with you adviser, but it’s always nice to remind an adviser how they’ve made an impact in your life. Decisions like successfully negotiating a raise, promotions, looking for new opportunities, or pursuing more education are all great opportunities to send your adviser a quick update. Updating an adviser can be as lightweight as “I read this article and thought of you!” to as intensive as scheduling a check-in call or coffee chat. At my edtech nonprofit, meeting up with an adviser about once every 3 weeks or so worked out really well because I had multiple advisers. As a result, I had someone with experience to talk to about my job search efforts or to ask questions about full-time working life every week!
- Close the loop. During my unemployment period, I would send updates according to specific job application questions or requests that I might have asked for. Thanks to my approach, I often felt comfortable asking advisers for an introduction or referral even after only 1–2 short interactions. When it comes to reaching out to an adviser with an action request, the critical step to keep in mind is closing the loop. Closing the loop communicates your commitment to your adviser. As an early career professional, closing the loop is an effective way of reminding your adviser that they’ve made a difference in your life! For example, during a hectic period of interviewing and negotiation, I emailed a handful of advisers for their advice on how to handle competing negotiation processes. They each responded with urgency, encouragement, and concrete tips. After the hectic period was over, it would have been easy to move on without letting them know the results of my interview process. Instead, I made it a priority to reach back out and update them on the process. Adviserships should be two-way streets. Keeping an adviser in the loop about a process or request that you’ve made is often the exact value that they’re looking for from the relationship. Avoid feeling like you’re “using” an adviser by making sure they know how helpful they’ve been to your career and giving them the opportunity to watch you grow!
While mentorships offer a rich method of nurturing early career professional development, I believe students, recent graduates, and early career professionals are also uniquely positioned to benefit from adviserships. In conclusion, invite someone who could be an adviser to chat, be an active listener, keep track of your engagement, and follow up with gratitude. If the person you speak to is receptive, you’ll be on your way to building your network in no time!
