Whether you are interested in acquiring new skills, need help overcoming a specific problem, want to trade knowledge with others or are simply looking for some guidance, a mentor is the way to go. But how to go about finding one?

In our lives, we come across many figures – be they authority figures or otherwise – who lead us, inspire us, challenge us and help us grow. Whoever the person, and whatever role they play in your life, having a mentor is an essential part of any learning and growing process. You are never too old – or too young – to have one, either!

As a student fresh out of high school and a little doe-eyed about the “real world”, the concept of having a mentor sounds rather appealing to me. Identifying a suitable mentor, however, is a tricky business.

Your journey in search for the perfect mentor should start where any journey does: at the beginning. “Mentor” was originally a character in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. Legend has it that when Odysseus, King of Ithaca, went to fight in the Trojan War, he left his kingdom – and the education of his son, Telemachus – in the hands of Mentor. From this tale, I learned that the position of “mentor” should be filled by someone who can handle the responsibility, and has something valuable to teach you. That is quite a good start.

Throughout your life, you will encounter a great many mentor figures that come in different shapes and sizes and fulfil specific needs you might have at that time and place in your life journey. To a high school student, a teacher or an older student may become an informal mentor. Tutoring institutions, which act as official types of mentoring programs, are also a source of great mentors. The type of mentor you require will depend greatly on where you are in life and in which parts of it you need assistance or guidance.

A mentor is sometimes older than you, but is always more experienced than you in the field in which you require some guidance – a business mentor might be someone who has worked in your field of interest or your company for a long time and holds a senior position there. Recently, I acquired my own mentor who assisted me in the application process for a very prestigious fellowship award from Allan Gray Orbis, an award he had already been granted last year. He already possessed the skills I needed in this specific situation, and shared them with me as my informal mentor.

In your search for a mentor, you should decide upon whether you want to form a relationship with a mentor in the long or the short run. “Serial mentorship” refers to the practice of having many different mentors at different stages and for different challenges in your life. On the other hand, many people have life-long mentors.

Whoever you choose as your mentor, for whichever challenge in your life and for however long you plan to maintain the relationship, your mentor should always be a person you admire and respect. Their skills and knowledge in your field of interest should invoke in you a deep feeling of respect and a desire to know more. They should be someone who has the necessary time, knowledge and resources, and should also be completely willing to help you. A mentoring relationship does not usually yield any visible benefits for the mentor. You might identify the perfect mentor, but they might not have the time or ability to help you at that stage of their lives. You should also be particularly clear about what you expect from a mentor in terms of the specific area in which you require assistance.

A new type of mentoring system has recently been identified, and is called ‘mentworking’. A series of short-term mentoring relationships are the foundation of this system, and it is used to set up networks of mutual benefit for both parties involved. Using the available network at your place of work or university, you can meet people with whom you would like to trade knowledge and skills.

Whether you would like one for help with overcoming a specific problem or challenge in your life, or whether you meet one by chance, a mentor plays an incredibly significant role in any person’s life and should be chosen wisely and appreciated.

About the author: Kayla is currently a first-year Journalism and Media Studies student at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She is the editor of the Comment & Analysis section of student newspaper Activate and she a writer for the Politics, Business, and Features sections, as well as a sub-editor for the paper. Her other subjects are Economics, English, History and Sociology. She devours books and sees herself as one of the blessed few who actually enjoy working. She is involved with student society SHARC (Student HIV/AIDS Resistance Campaign) at Rhodes and has recently graduated as a certified Peer Educator. She is also a Media Representative for SHARC. She is the community engagement representative for the African Drum Society and is currently working with up-and-coming student society Common Ground in the same capacity. She loves watching art films and her guilty pleasure is shopping.

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