Dear Mom: How Do You Find a Mentor?

Dear Mom,

I’m writing to you as I lay on my bed in what to me feels like my high school bedroom. In front of me is a bulletin board wall covered with photographs of me and my high school friends and images that I cut out from magazines when I was 16. Behind me are boxes filled with belongings that I collected throughout my time in college. In less than a month I’ll be moving out of your and Dad’s house in Manhattan and into an apartment of my own in Brooklyn. I’ll also start looking for my first job.

Having just completed my undergraduate degree, I can now reflect back on my past few years at college. My studies in sociology and English were incredibly fulfilling, and in my last year, I put a lot of time and energy into writing a thesis, which in the end was extremely rewarding. Not only did I develop intellectually, but I also formed meaningful relationships with my peers and professors that allowed me to grow socially as well as emotionally.

I’m lucky to feel so satisfied with my college experience, for that satisfaction has allowed me to feel ready for what’s next. What exactly is next, I don’t know.

I have some ideas about the kinds of jobs I’m interested in and which companies I might want to work for. I’ve always been interested in food, I love to write, and I am fascinated by the ways in which technology has allowed us to think more strategically about where and what to eat. I am aware of what skills I possess. I know that I am extremely organized and good at project management. I’m mostly interested in working at a dynamic, creative organization and believe I can handle many different roles and responsibilities.

I am surrounded by people, including you, Dad, my older sister, many of your friends, and many of my own friends, that inspire me to think and achieve on a daily basis. I’m thankful to have so many people in my life that I love and respect, and to whom I can look for guidance.

Yet I feel like I’m at a point where there’s another kind of relationship from which I could really benefit, one which would allow me to gain the kind of useful insight and invaluable advice that will impact me significantly over the course of my career.

I’m about to embark on a journey that could be rocky to begin with, or maybe even delightfully smooth, but either way, there’s a long road ahead of me. Once you were young and professionally naive like myself, but now you are a successful and established investor who acts as a mentor to many. So I’m wondering, how will I know when I meet someone who would make a good mentor for me? Or, more importantly, what makes a good mentor?

Love,
Emily