{"id":83904,"date":"2014-11-05T07:30:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T13:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83904"},"modified":"2014-11-04T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T05:59:10","slug":"surviving-the-first-year-finding-a-mentor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83904","title":{"rendered":"Surviving the first year: finding a mentor"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sarah Dashow, Senior Assistant, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a>, Nunavut<\/a>, Northwest Territories<\/a>,\u00a0Yukon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Surviving the first year: finding a mentor<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Sarah<\/a>It\u2019s the first day of your new job, and you have a lot to learn, and a lot of people to meet. Depending on\u00a0what type of environment you are working in, there may have been an orientation, or perhaps training\u00a0sessions, or some kind of knowledge transfer, but now you\u2019re on your own \u2013 what do you do?<\/p>\n

Find someone, be it a supervisor, a team member or colleague who has been there for a while, or just\u00a0a more experienced hire in the same department, and ask them to be your mentor. Let this person be\u00a0your introductory handshake and your go-to person for questions \u2013 get to know them so they can get\u00a0to know you. He or she will already know their way around wherever you are working and will know\u00a0the projects, teams, and culture, and from this, you can latch onto projects that interest you or pursue\u00a0networking opportunities that fit into your role.<\/p>\n

Speaking from my own experience in a co-op position as both a mentee and a mentor, it is an invaluable\u00a0experience. I did get lucky \u2013 the company I work for, besides having an actual coach and mentor system\u00a0in place for new full time hires, fills two co-op positions at a time on a 4-month term with a potential 4-\u00a0month extension, which has since created a system where a new co-op comes in as another takes the\u00a0extension: instant mentor!<\/p>\n

Through the senior co-op, a role that I am now filling for the new co-op, I was able to reach out\u00a0for additional help and training when the other team members were engaged with other projects.\u00a0Additionally, her pre-established relationship with the team served as an ice-breaker for me to get to\u00a0know everyone better.<\/p>\n

Not only did this facilitate my feeling comfortable and confident in my position, but it allowed me to get\u00a0more involved in a variety of projects early on and really make the most of my time.<\/p>\n

Everyone was in your shoes at one point, and a new a job can leave even the most confident people\u00a0feeling anxious and nervous. Will I fit in? What if I mess up? Your mentor can become your guidebook\u00a0and your connection. They can let you in on the trade secrets – the things that make the everyday work\u00a0a little easier or the ways to fix that metadata folder you accidentally deleted. They can tell you the best\u00a0restaurants to grab a quick lunch, or the floor with the best coffee machine.<\/p>\n

From the simple to the complex, your mentor is your friend, and together, your first year might not be\u00a0so scary after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sarah Dashow, Senior Assistant, INALJ Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Northwest Territories,\u00a0Yukon Surviving the first year: finding a mentor It\u2019s the first day of your new job, and you have a lot to learn, and a lot of people to meet. Depending on\u00a0what type of environment you are working in, there may have been an…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":76752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,6656,6150,6486,6358,3667,5978,5977,4412,5476,6357],"class_list":["post-83904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-finding-a-mentor","tag-first-year","tag-inalj-labrador","tag-inalj-newfoundland","tag-inalj-northwest-territories","tag-inalj-nunavut","tag-inalj-yukon","tag-mentor","tag-new-job","tag-sarah-dashow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/sarah-dashow.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lPi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}