EPISODE 024 - Career: What role does mentorship play in IT?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidel and today we talk about mentorship or mentoring in IT. So what role does mentorship play in the IT departments? What is mentorship for me? So I see mentorship as a regular exchange of information of mindsets of suggestions of ideas. So someone you can talk with, share your experience, share your questions, share your whatever and he maybe not gives you a solution, but at least an advice or his view of that thing. And I see or what I saw in the last few years, there is a different There are three different types of mentorships or mentorings. One is very easy for most of you. I saw this two years ago where I started my business. I was alone. I did consulting alone. I lost my team from my employee. So was completely alone. I had no one to exchange or to talk about any technical topics, any technical questions, any insights, or maybe some input from a different view. What do you think or what do you recommend for this kind of problem? And I'm talking about colleagues. So in the first few months of where I started my business, I just had no colleagues. Luckily, this changed a few months later and one of a good friend joined my team or our team. And so I had a person who I can ask technical questions. can ask if he solved that already or maybe he used that kind of, in our case, script or API or whatever, he worked with that already. So this is something very valuable to have someone you can talk with, which works in your area, which works in your department, and it just can share experiences and knowledge.

Michael Seidl: That was a huge improvement or I really missed that in the first few months before he joined the company. I think that's a very valuable mentorship or sparing partner, whatever you want to call it. Maybe sparing partner is better than mentorship because mentorship is so big and how to say it, non-touchable mentor. It's just a sparing partner to talk with someone. which shares the same topics, the same interests, the same profession that's very valuable. The second one is not a direct membership, more a consuming membership. In my specific case, I talk about consuming content from persons I like or I share. mindset, share ideas, share behavior, I views of things. And especially I have two examples. I have one podcast, it's more business related. And I have one person on social media I follow with good content. So I'm not talking about TikTok or Instagram videos scrolling hours a day. I really talk about content with value. on social media or podcasts. That's what I'm talking about. I have one particular podcast I listen to every week. It's about 10-15 minutes. It's not about IT. It's more about business related stuff. It's just a person I like, I can relate on. I already met in person a year ago and I just like that person. And he's very successful. So he's not talking about how to be millionaire in two days. So he really talks about the real life, the real business and what you need to take care of, how to overcome some challenges, how to do leadership, all business related and really like the format, like the maybe like the voice. It's just something personal. And that's

Michael Seidl: That's the second thing. And the third thing of mentorship is really you have one person, regular calls, and I definitely will be sure you pay money for this. So if you really want a mentor, one-on-one call, or maybe one on a few persons, so maybe he's doing group mentorship, then definitely you have to pay something for this. But there might be reasons and there's definitely for value for this, but I think you can. can achieve many things or maybe most of the things by using the two other forms of mentorship, which is your colleagues and which is just consuming free content from persons you like. And they meet the topic. So, and then if that's not enough or you want to go maybe further and, or maybe a specific topic, then there is direct mentorship. You need to pay money for this. need to reserve, I think, a dedicated time slot because there will be maybe half an hour call every week on that day. that needs to be planned and everything. But that's the third thing. And the last point is how to find the correct mentor, the correct mentorship. think you choose, you just choose. a person you like, just choose a person maybe shares the same interests or shares the same insight, a few of some specific topic. For example, the colleagues might be hard to select because colleagues are here. You cannot say this colleague has to leave, but at least you can intense the contact or the information exchange with specific colleagues. That's your colleague mentorship or colleague sparing partner. Of course, you can decide what content you see on social media from what persons, what podcasts you hear on social media or what persons you follow. That's definitely in your decision. Just see or just feel if you like that person.

Michael Seidl: If you share some views, maybe it's just easy. If you like it or not, make this decision. There might be hundreds or thousands of successful people in a specific area and maybe they share the same knowledge, but maybe just in a different way. Just choose that one you like, you prefer. Not that one who is the most nice to you and that's not the thing, but that person who you just like, or you're feeling comfortable when he's talking. Maybe it's just the voice when it comes to a podcast. Maybe it's just the voice you like or you don't like. Okay. And that's how you decide how to find the correct mentor. Because if you listen to podcasts every week, I you should like the voice and you should like the ideas, you should like the behavior, everything. There might be different persons, but also was recommended a different podcast from other people. listened to that and I had the good feeling. I missed that feeling. missed that. I just don't like the voice. I just don't like the tone. I just don't like whatever. prefer to stay. It's free up to you. Nobody is forcing you to listen or consume any podcast, any social media, whatever. Just find the right person where the feeling is good and that's it. I hope this episode was interesting for you. Just let me know what you think about mentorship. At the end, I wish you a nice week ahead. If you have any questions, let me know, send me a text message on LinkedIn or a voice message, whatever you prefer. So enjoy your week, stay productive and bye bye.