Career Development/Mentoring at Work Issue

Parent Cafe
1

<p>What’s your experience/opinion on maintaining ‘mentoring’ relationships with co-workers who are located in different cities/offices of your company?</p>

<p>I was on a 12-13 month project with an associate who is 4-5 yrs senior to me in a different office of my company; it was a great experience – lots of substantive work and she was always there to discuss that assignment, my other unrelated projects, work-life stuff. We got to know each other fairly well because we were working long hrs (mostly by phone/email) and traveled together a bit.</p>

<p>From my perspective as a junior associate, this is a professional relationship I’d like to maintain, though I’m not sure how to approach it. I’d like to be able to check in every month or two and discuss what we’re both working on/what skills I should be developing in my future projects etc; I may be in her city for a day or two (for a personal trip) and I’d love to be able to grab lunch/dinner on a weekday that I’m there. While she has the reputation of caring about her associates’ professional development and is pretty talkative/friendly, I’m not sure how to approach this. I don’t want to be seen as strange (or like I’m kissing up) for checking in now that our project is done or have her feel obligated to hang out with me. Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>I would suggest first, that you send her a little email thanking her for all her assistance and advice throughout the project. Then just be honest - tell her that you appreciated her sharing her thoughts and experience, and that you would like to keep the lines of communication open in the future. She’ll probably reply yes. Then I’d let it sit for a while, until you actually have something to say - a business question, a dilemma - something where her thoughts would in fact be helpful. How could anyone feel bad about being respected? Just make sure you keep it all professional, but friendly. Let her set the pace: if she responds to your questions, that’s a green light. If she starts to put you off, that’s a red light. Just try to read the responses, and you’ll be fine. No manager (other than sociopathological ones, which unfortunately do exist) wants to discourage people. Even managers want a constituency. Anyone who’s smart realizes that they need their own base within a company, and you might one day be in a position to help her.</p>