Comments on: Mentors are Your Friends…Right?

By: guest

guest — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:39:27 +0000

i had a mentor while i was interning and this guy was a total douchebag. he never gave me any advice other than “be punctual” and “work hard”. he had no clue what he was doing and it was pretty obvious he was getting nowhere in the company. once i asked him if i could leave half an hour early (he was also of the ppl i reported to) cuz there was absolutely no work to do and he told me “just sit tight at your desk till 5PM, this will teach you discipline which will help you become an effective employee”. fuckin dumbass.

By: guest

guest — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:42:09 +0000

bottle service?? are you kidding me??
this is a recession.
we don’t even have a charge code to expense a mentor/mentee lunch anymore!!!!!!!

By: big4bound

big4bound — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:56:14 +0000

I have not had a mentor i the Big 4 setting yet, but this is my take on it. Often, we look for people who are much more senior than us to guide us. What ends up happening though is that these people have forgotten exactly what it feels like being in our shoes. Even though we have guidance for where we need to go in the long run, sometimes we are left unsure of what our next step should be.
In the WSJ article the woman is upset because her mentor is only a level above her, but I think this is a good situation to be in. Her mentor must have been in her shoes recently so must know what she is feeling and what guidance she needs to succeed. That is how I look at it anyway.