Becoming a mentor, being a peer: Part 3 The turning point
When I was 17 I’m fairly sure I was pretty focused on the question I got asked the most: “So what do you want to do with your life?” Thats a pretty big question and one I’m still trying to answer at almost double the age!
These days that same question has taken on a whole new dimension. Oh you just have to ‘find your passion’ or ‘do what you love’. Isn’t that just another, way more intense way of asking someone what they want to do with their life?!
As mentors at CMN we find ourselves in a position where the young people we’re partnered with are making life choices. Do I continue to study? Whats should I study? What should I do after that? And when I first started this programme I think I saw it as almost my duty to help guide William through some of these decisions. To be the voice of wisdom and experience and help him find his ‘passion’.
At CMN this week we spoke a lot about social and cultural capital and how vital some of the more invisible aspects of our industry are to help you get ahead. All that knowledge we’ve soaked up over the years that we now take for granted. Like not turning up to work in a suit. Knowing the ‘big names’ in your particular field. What tone to use in emails or how to behave in meetings.
Last week William and I discussed goals for our time together and William offered an incredibly insightful suggestion. He said “I want to understand the difference between expectation and reality in different jobs.” This immediately made me think back to when I left university as an ambitious, aspiring packaging designer only to find my dream of making beautiful boxes all day long had morphed into designing back of pack layouts for coffee cartons. Reality hit home and it didn’t meet my expectations.
This is invisible industry knowledge that I found out the hard way and much later than I would have liked. It’s interesting to me that the goals William and I are working towards are primarily knowledge based. And largely focused around that ‘invisible knowledge’ we just know and take for granted. Suddenly this is less about me showing someone the way and more about a peer-to-peer exchange of ‘inside intel’ to help build confidence and identification with an industry.
Thinking back to passion and life choices, one thing I always wish I knew earlier was how important it is to align what you do with who you are and what you believe, not just what you like or what you’re good at. Perhaps that sometimes stems from a limited frame of reference. The inability to see yourself within a context because you have no real idea of the full picture.
I’m excited that William and I are going to create something together. An industry knowledge map, his industry knowledge map. And potentially a resource for others to look under the hood of an industry, examine the cogs and see where they might fit. We’re becoming detectives, partners and peers in this mission together.
