As I read an article in TED website about the 5 mentors you need in your life, I thought of all the analytics mentors in the past 5 years of my career and how each one represented one of those mentor types, and many of those great mentors are here in the DAA community so I wanted to mention them and invite everyone to mention their mentors that made an impact in their career.
I have to say that I did not have a direct “mentoring relationship” with many of the mentors I listed below, but getting involved in the DAA community automatically formed the mentoring experience. If you don’t have a lot of connections here, the DAA Mentoring Program offers the chance to look up and directly connect with a mentor and have a formal mentoring relationship, that I am sure will open up new opportunities to connect with other mentors!
The article defines the 5 mentors as:
Mentor #1: The Master of Craft
This person can function as your personal Jedi master, someone who’s accumulated their wisdom through years of experience and who can provide insight into your industry and fine-tuning your skills.
@Joe Christopher is the master of Craft mentor whom I learned (and still learn) a lot from whether it’s analytics concepts, best practices, latest platforms and much more! I always look out for a blogpost from him as those encompass many years of experience and knowledge.
Mentor #2: The Champion of your Cause
These are people who are advocates and who have your back. But they’re more than just boosters — often, they can be connectors too, introducing you to useful people in your industry.
@Jim Sterne & @Alex Yastrebenetsky are my champions, and I can not thank them enough for all the opportunities that I got because of their mentions, I always say the best leaders are those who enable others, and this is something Alex and Jim do every day, making an impact on a lot of us in the analytics industry.
Mentor #3: The Copilot
Your best work bud. The copilot is the colleague who can talk you through projects, advise you in navigating the personalities at your company
@Amin Shawki has been my closest mentor and co-pilot with every analytics challenge that I had in the past year. Based on my experience and the different co-pilots that I had, I think it can be with a direct manager who's heavily involved in your projects, or between peers who are committed to supporting each other.
Mentor #4: The Anchor
While your champion supports you to achieve specific career goals, your anchor is a confidante and a sounding board. This person doesn’t have to work in your industry — in fact, it could be a friend or family member.
Those were some of my family members (that some of you saw on the big screen in the last Quanties party) that definitely listened to lots of analytics stories although they’re not analysts! Sarah & Maryam .
Mentor #5: The Reverse Mentor
Talking to mentees gives the opportunity to collect feedback on leadership style, engage with the younger generation, and keep my perspectives fresh and relevant.
@Barbara Kalicki and @Andreia Benites are amazing mentees that I continuously enjoy mentoring. They helped me grow into an informed leader as I learned that sometimes, a teacher becomes a student!
Enjoy reading the article and mention some of your mentors here!
#Mentoring