One way to boost your career is to find the right mentor for you: even people that are already successful can benefit from it.

One way to boost your career is to find a mentor in the recruitment business. Being able to get the personal view of a third party on your job search can go a long way in helping you taking the next step within your organisation or embarking in new challenges outside your industry.

Even people who are already successful can benefit from having a career spirit guide. Take the best athletes in the world, for instance. Despite having won many trophies and dominating the most important competitions in the world, they are always trying to improve and better themselves. In order to achieve that, they turn to the best coaches available.

As good as they are, they can only get so far. They usually reach a certain point in their careers where they cannot improve upon their natural talent. To outrun themselves and exceed a certain threshold, they look for professional help. They look for whoever – in many cases more than one professional coach – who can get them to the next level.

A Mentor Is Like an Experienced Coach or Teacher

“This is the same in business”, Raffingers Advisory claims.

“Coaches help grow businesses, increase the breadth of skills and improve the vision for the future, as well as give belief and encouragement to think bigger and not be afraid of pushing boundaries.

They also support you personally, “helping you to understand the importance of the time you’re away from the office and how getting your work/life balance right.”  

Before even thinking about how to find the right career coach, you should take a key step. You should focus on setting clear career goals and expectations. Once you have done that, and you have put yourself in the right state of mind, you are halfway through.

Consider that everybody needs someone to pattern themselves after – even at a not so young age. A career mentor is much more than a recruiter. Not only is he/she capable of turning your CV into an asset, as well as managing your online reputation properly and getting the most of out of your network of contacts.

A good coach is also someone who offers career guidance according to the values you believe in. In fact, a good career mentor for some might be bad for others. That’s why te most important thing is to find the right fit who shares your values. This doesn’t mean that a career mentor necessarily needs to work in your field.

Focus on Integrity and Not The Business Field

Something to always keep in mind is that our values are what define us. They are one person’s default stances when no one is watching. The values you believe in are hard to change. So, try to pick someone who overlaps as much as possible with you.

A good mentor is also someone who’s really able to understand your needs and ambitions. As with a good teacher, the best career mentors are the ones who listen to their protégé. “Try to find someone who enjoys sharing knowledge and is delighted to impart skills”, JetBlue Airways’ Chairman of the Board Joel Peterson suggests on his LinkedIn page.

Peterson has a couple of more useful tips to give. First, it could be better to seek someone with a very good network.

“If you’ve found a mentor who has adopted your career interests as his or her own, you’ll be introduced to a world of contacts it would otherwise take you years to develop.”

Second, always look for someone who is passionate for what he does and who rejoices in the success of others and want them to get ahead. “Self-absorbed people never make good mentors,” states the Stanford Graduate School of Business’ professor.

A committed and knowledgeable career coach will help you reposition yourself, so that you can successfully develop your skills and finally make progress in achieving your goals.