> Second, is this "mentor-mentee" thing real, or just something business coaches and get-rich-quick gurus claim? Never seen it in the real world.
Have you ever learned from one of your more senior coworkers or peers? Worked alongside someone who showed you the ropes or helped you level up your skills? Then you've been a mentee.
Have you ever taken time to guide new hires or junior coworkers in something you're familiar with? Provided advice to accelerate someone's learning? Then you've been a mentor.
Mentor/mentee usually isn't an explicit declaration. It's a very valuable way to accelerate skills, though not the only way.
Sure I had those, but it's more explicit when you are one of the many programmers taking advice from a senior programmer.
In the case of a CTO, since it's a unque role, you have to go outside of your company to get mentored. And that doesn't seem so straight forward to me. Because asking a colleague about a problem you are facing is way easier than calling someone and talking about your problem at your work.
Maybe I'm ignorant about this topic, and maybe such things are more normal in US than here in EU. Such things go really against my nature, but I aslo never seen such relationship outside of the same company.
> Maybe I'm ignorant about this topic, and maybe such things are more normal in US than here in EU.
If you're ignorant about the topic, why not explore the other perspective with curiosity rather than gruffly dismissing it as provoking a BS sensor? Mentorship is an enormous part of the lifecycle of executive tenure of the ecosystem I participate in, which is the NYC startup ecosystem.
I've observed that when my colleagues have built a deep relationship with their manager during their tenure, often times, they gain that mentorship permanently whether they stay at the company or not. The reason the mentor does it is because it's just another version of the old adage of paying it forward -- they know that a job they land in the future could come from one of their old reports; in fact, they might even end up working for one of their old reports!
Investing time and energy into cultivating and keeping these relationships going is a large part of how my colleagues have continued to keep their career moving upward as they approach mid-career.
Have you ever learned from one of your more senior coworkers or peers? Worked alongside someone who showed you the ropes or helped you level up your skills? Then you've been a mentee.
Have you ever taken time to guide new hires or junior coworkers in something you're familiar with? Provided advice to accelerate someone's learning? Then you've been a mentor.
Mentor/mentee usually isn't an explicit declaration. It's a very valuable way to accelerate skills, though not the only way.