Thing 11: Mentoring

Now this is something where I have to admit I have not done well, in that since Chartering, I haven't really had an official mentor.

When I was doing my graduate trainee year, my manager was my mentor holding meetings with me and discussing what I'd like to learn next. I also had a mentor when working for Chartership, following what used to be Route B (a Professional Development Report without following a recognised training scheme), my mentor was invaluable, as to be honest I was completely confused by the whole thing and really didn't know what way I was heading. I possibly owe him considerably more than I gave credit for at the time.

Since then, I've not really had a mentor. Like a number of cpd23 bloggers, I've mainly looked up to people and tried to emmulate what I thought was good and asked them for advice when I felt I needed it. I think this has helped in that I've tended to pick who is most likely to understand my situation. These haven't always been in the same organisation as myself and this I find is useful, since they can often give better advice being apart from what is happening.

In my current post, my line manager holds a one-to-one meeting once a month with me. This is useful for airing any problems we may have and to ask for advice. I've just changed line managers and I don't see my current manager as much as I'd like (sometimes only once everytwo or three weeks), so I often have a great long list of questions. I used to see my previous line manager at least three days a week and could just knock on the door with an "Only me!" comment. I think I found I got a lot from that manager/mentor relationship.

I would like to offer to be a mentor to someone, but no one has asked me (not sure what that says!) I also find that throughout the profession as a whole, librarians tend to be sharing and helpful and if you help them, they will help you in return. It is a friendly profession as a whole and I enjoy that.