I recently graduated and joined Project X Ltd as a Consultant. My current assignment is as a Business Analyst for a major telecommunications company. Immediately after being recruited, Stephen assigned me a mentor and I have found this very helpful in my learning process in terms of aiming to be an effective Consultant.
I thought I would share what, in my perspective, is the most useful part in my relationship with my mentor.
- Having someone who knows the business globally but is not involved with the specific project I am on, who can give a fresher and broader “outside” look at it and provide a view that is not “polluted” by little bits and bytes of the problems.
- A person to canalize some of the frustration I face at work. As a Business Analyst spending time to “chase” after people and gather information, this proves to be quite useful.
- A person that forces me to reflect. When a situation arises and I don’t handle it very well, I often do not have/take the time to analyze it. Talking about it with my mentor allows to:
- Spend some time to define the problem exactly by phrasing it
- Talk about it
- And more reflect on this: “In the future, if a similar situation was to arise, how would I handle it differently so I do not make the same mistake again?”
As it seems that the career I am pursuing will be more focussed on the business and management problems (as opposed to becoming a “technical” person), having a mentor is a great addition to develop skills which cannot be learnt in University.
