How Assigning a Mentor Can Assist Your Career

How Assigning a Mentor Can Assist Your Career I know what I wanted and I went for it. Im not at the top yet. It is almost a year now since I landed  my first Marketing role, I have made it my own and I just want to continue to make an impact on the  industry I am operating in.  However what has become increasingly apparent to me since my stunt at Waterloo station is that  there is a growing number of graduates that do not know what they want to do when the cap lands  on graduation day. Are students well prepared for life after graduation? A huge number of graduates don’t know how to go about landing the perfect  role for them. Here I would say this is the fault of career services at universities, they give the same  advice and CV templates to those studying physiotherapy and those studying photography. They will  most likely both end up in a sales role with very little career progression. The focus seems to be more  on how many key words you can cram into your CV, rather than how much experience you can gain  while at university. Graduates seem to be in such a rush to get to the top, but so many who study a particular course at  degree level and fail to understand the career options after graduation. Now who is to blame,  students, lecturers or the curriculum? Then they look to their friends who are excelling in their  careers and they didn’t even go to university and have no debt to pay off. Questioning whether they  made the right choice they could end up settling for any role and never fulfil their potential with the  degree they worked so hard for. Can a career mentor help? My suggestion would be to seek out a mentor. Someone who can give you some guidance, support, knowledge and encouragement to help you achieve the career of your dreams. By finding a mentor who you aspire to be like, they will be in the position to give you  advice on how you can best achieve your career  goals and you will have somebody to bounce ideas off while organising and planning career moves. While working for The Asoria Group I have been heading up a campaign; Women in Business. I have  been filming interviews with females from the Digital, Property and Renewables industries, so they can  share their stories, experiences and advice to women thinking of joining the sectors and how they can  hopefully reach board room level within their desired industry. Statistics show the number of  women applying for computer science, property and construction or engineering courses has either  dropped off or levelled off. My aim is to boost the representation and population of women in these  industries as well as to ensure a degree means something again, so I have taken it upon myself to  not only be a ‘media personality’ but also a motivational speaker. What is very disheartening for many, is that there are more men called John in the FTSE 100 than  women. More and more women will begin to reach board room level and the FTSE 100, but how can  our generation better prepare ourselves for leadership roles now? Become a mentor. If you are  passionate about your industry, try and pass that passion and ambition on to those that are still in  the early stages of deciding what they want to do career wise. Inspire the next generation and it also  looks amazing on your CV ;). I am happy to give advice to those in need and the best piece of advice I can give would be to join a  start-up company in your chosen industry. The rate you can grow and things you can learn at a start-up company can set you on a path to greatness. Help a company grow and whatever success is to  you, it will be achieved. Be it a team award or a promotion, if you become a valued employee to the  company and find your niche within the market, eventually you will go onto bigger better things. Hear what Rachael Pollard Head of Digital and CRM at Just Eat Group had to say  about her experience joining a start-up and why she would recommend that graduates consider joining start ups to get the career boost and experience they need in this short video. Author:  Alfred Ajani is a  Coventry University graduate from South London, also known as ‘The CV Man’.    Marketing and PR Projects Manager at The Asoria Group, responsible for driving the Marketing and PR function of The Asoria Group. My role is to bring innovative solutions to traditional challenges within the recruitment industry. Image credit:  racorn