Do you have/have you had a good mentor in your career?

[Sizzlysausage]

I have been pondering this lately because I've been feeling a bit lonely in my working life. I became an academic around the same time as I had two very young children and a husband who worked long hours. No excuses, but I found it very difficult to build networks (don't think I knew how important that was at the time) and that combined with a serious lack of confidence (didn't ever feel clever enough to be an academic) mean that well over ten years later, I do most of my work on my own. I think that is one (though not the only) reason why my career has progressed pretty slowly and I have really been knocked back by regular rejections. I was thinking that I would have loved to have had one person who I felt was rooting for me - a mentor, a sponsor, something like that. But I also recognise I am probably just feeling a bit sorry for myself today 😀I just wondered though, what is other people's experience of this? Have you had a supporter to give you a boost when things don't work out, especially in early career? Or have you ploughed your own furrow?

I've had a mentor at a couple of points in my career. Mainly when been looking at promotions etc.

I've just got one again as felt like I was stagnating a bit and don't want to be hanging on in there till retirement.

It's been brilliant this time round. My mentor is very senior in the organisation but he's also a trained coach and counsellor who genuinely loves to mentor/coach people. He's really pushed me to think about what I really want to do.

So I'd say yes, provided it's a good mentor and not one who's doing it to tick a box for their own career.

Ignore me. This came up in Active and I responded before seeing it was in Academic! I'm from corporate world so probably different although points might still stand!

I was lucky enough to work as a postdoc with a fabulous and v senior female scientist who became my mentor and has supported me for 20+ years. I've also signed up to formal university mentoring schemes, both as mentor and mentee. they are OK but nothing like my real mentor.

However, my 'real mentor' is now retired and not very active. Most of my real connections and support now come from peers and friends. For example, one of my best collaborators is a former postdoc who I hired, and others are colleagues around the university. so networking can work at any level. I just go for whatever projects feel fun and productive.