How a Mentor Will Improve Your Success Next Year
Whatever stage you are at in your MedTech career, there will always be things you haven't encountered before.
You might be considering your first management role, moving into a new therapy area, taking on greater commercial responsibility or simply trying to work out what your next career step should be.
Having someone experienced to talk these decisions through with can be extremely valuable.
A good mentor won't tell you exactly what to do or make career decisions for you. They can offer another perspective, share relevant experience, challenge your thinking and help you identify areas you may need to develop.
What Is a Career Mentor?
A career mentor is someone whose experience or perspective can help you think about your own development and career decisions.
They could be somebody more experienced within your organisation, a former manager, a colleague from elsewhere in the MedTech industry or someone who has already followed a career path you're considering.
The most senior person you know isn't automatically the best mentor.
What's more important is that they have relevant experience, are willing to share it honestly and can listen as well as give advice.
A good mentor should be able to provide constructive feedback, ask useful questions and challenge your assumptions when necessary.
How Can a Mentor Help Your MedTech Career?
1. Give You an Outside Perspective
It can be difficult to assess your own career objectively when you're immersed in the day-to-day demands of your job.
A mentor can provide another perspective.
You may be ready for greater responsibility but haven't recognised it. You may be focused on promotion when a sideways move would give you experience that will be valuable later. Or there may be a gap in your experience that could limit your next move if you don't address it.
A mentor can't decide which route is right for you, but they can help you consider possibilities you may not have thought about yourself.
2. Help You Think About Your Career Direction
You don't need to know exactly where you want to be in five or ten years, but having some idea of what you want from the next stage of your career can help you make better decisions.
A mentor with relevant MedTech experience may be able to help you understand different career routes and the experience you are likely to need to progress towards them.
For example, if you want to move from sales into management, what evidence of coaching, leadership or developing other people could you start building now?
If you're interested in moving into a different therapy area, which parts of your existing experience are transferable and where might you need additional knowledge?
These conversations can help turn a broad career ambition into practical development priorities.
3. Support Your Skills Development
A mentor can also help you identify skills and experience worth developing.
They may be able to recommend training, projects or additional responsibilities that would expose you to areas you need to strengthen.
Sometimes this development doesn't require a formal course.
Taking responsibility for a project, supporting a less experienced colleague, becoming involved in a product launch or gaining exposure to a different part of the business can all help you build experience for the future.
A mentor who understands where you want to go can help you identify opportunities that are genuinely relevant to that direction.
4. Let You Learn From Their Experience
One of the simplest benefits of mentoring is being able to learn from somebody who has already encountered situations you're dealing with for the first time.
They may have experience of:
- Moving from sales into management
- Taking responsibility for a larger territory
- Moving into a different MedTech sector
- Developing commercial or leadership skills
- Managing a difficult career decision
- Choosing between management and specialist career paths
- Taking on greater responsibility within a growing company
Their experience won't necessarily give you the answer, because your circumstances may be different.
But it can help you ask better questions and understand some of the potential consequences of different choices.
5. Broaden Your Professional Perspective
Working within one organisation for a long time can naturally shape your view of how companies, teams and careers operate.
A mentor from elsewhere in the industry can expose you to different perspectives and ways of working.
They may also introduce you to people, events or areas of the industry that help broaden your understanding of the MedTech market.
Networking shouldn't be the primary reason for finding a mentor, and a mentor isn't there simply to find you your next job. But over time, mentoring relationships can naturally help you develop a wider professional perspective and network.
You Don't Need One Person to Provide Everything
It's easy to imagine a mentor as one person who guides every aspect of your career, but that isn't necessarily realistic.
Different people can provide different perspectives.
Your manager might help you improve your performance in your current role. A senior colleague may understand how to progress within your organisation. A former manager may know your strengths particularly well. Someone outside your company may be able to give you a broader view of the market.
You may also have peers whose perspective you value because they're facing similar career decisions.
The important thing is having people whose judgement you trust and who are willing to be honest with you.
How to Make the Most of a Mentor
1. Know What You Want Help With
Before approaching somebody, think about why you would value their input.
Rather than simply asking, "Will you be my mentor?", you might explain that you're considering moving into management and would value their perspective because they have already made that transition.
A clear reason makes it much easier for both of you to understand what the relationship could offer.
2. Choose Someone Relevant
Look for somebody whose experience is relevant to what you're trying to achieve.
They don't necessarily need to work for your current employer or have exactly the career you want.
Consider what you can genuinely learn from their experience and whether they are someone you feel comfortable having an open conversation with.
3. Agree How the Relationship Will Work
Mentoring doesn't need to be highly formal.
However, it helps to agree some basic expectations. How often will you speak? Will conversations be arranged when needed or happen regularly? What would you both like to get from them?
This avoids either person having very different expectations of the relationship.
4. Come Prepared
Don't expect your mentor to create the agenda every time you speak.
Think about the questions, decisions or challenges you would like their perspective on.
If they suggested something during your previous conversation, be prepared to discuss what happened afterwards.
The more specific you can be about what you want to explore, the more useful the conversation is likely to be.
5. Be Open to Being Challenged
There isn't much value in asking for another person's perspective if you only want them to confirm what you've already decided.
A useful mentor may sometimes tell you something you don't particularly want to hear.
That doesn't mean you have to agree with them, but consider why they see the situation differently and whether there is something useful in their feedback.
6. Make Your Own Decisions
A mentor can provide advice, experience and perspective. They shouldn't run your career.
What worked for them won't automatically be right for you.
Your circumstances, priorities, strengths and ambitions may be very different.
Listen to the advice, ask questions and consider what you've learned. Then make the decision that is right for you.
Finding the Right Support for Your Career
A good mentor won't provide a shortcut to career success, but they can give you something extremely useful: another informed perspective.
They can help you identify development opportunities, think through difficult decisions and learn from experiences you haven't had yet.
You don't need a perfectly structured mentoring programme or one person who has all the answers.
Sometimes having the right person to ask the right question at the right point in your career is enough.