Mónica experienced the same thing. As a software engineer, she was focusing her effort on a Flutter project at work, a technology that’s quickly on the rise and growing in popularity day-by-day.
But as things are, priorities shifted and suddenly Mónica and her team spent the time at her day job working on other projects, away from Flutter.
The problem? Not only was Mónica no longer able to spend so much time on learning the tech, she also lost the support and guidance of other team members she was working with. It was time to look for that help in professional development elsewhere.
An opportunity to develop skills and career
A quickly changing business world makes it hard for professionals to always align their professional growth goals with the business targets, that’s natural.
Unfortunately, there’s only limited ways to solve it. Many professionals will try and moonlight, work on some sideprojects and study on nights and weekends. Many others however, will change positions. In fact, career development is the #1 reason why employees switch their jobs. It’s in the interest of both team, business and employee to prevent this.
Luckily, Mónica found a way! After seeing a talk in an online event by Gonçalo Palma and finding him as a mentor, it was clear that this would be someone that can help her on the quest of growing her skills in the right directions.
“I think Flutter is the future! So when Gonçalo presented this talk, it was so clear and concise, I just loved it!”
Mónica had the basics of the technology down, now it was time to grow them out of passion and looking at the way ahead.
“A mentor will guide me and I will grow faster. It was the best decision!”
Accelerating professional development
One of the key aspects of mentorships is that it’s extremely agile and personal. Other than a course and a bootcamp, it’s possible for a personal mentor of yours to change requirements as needed. Mónica experienced this first-hand.
“We had a couple of sessions and Gonçalo realized I was capable of doing things. We started to build more sessions around thinking like a senior developer.”
A change that has certainly paid off. Then, while her team and company was restructuring and professional development might have come a little short, Mónica was able to focus on it.
“I’m feeling more confident with my skills and I also noticed that now I am more communicative.”
Just a couple months in, Mónica is once again back on track of becoming an expert in Flutter. Not only that, but with the help of her mentor, she has also gained confidence in those skills and can communicate them productively.
Thinking like a senior developer
A mentor is not a teacher, tutor or manager. As career professionals themselves, they know exactly what differentiates the good and the great. They know which hard and soft skills need to be built out in order to succeed. On top of that, they are also an incredible source of experience.
As such, the path that we ourselves seek out may often be different from the one that’ll get us towards our goals. Mentors can bring in an outside view to make just that happen.
“Thinking like a senior developer… I never thought about this before. But once we started, it turned out to be exactly what I needed! I know I can do these things, but the next step is to communicate them as such too!”
Your source for professional development as a service
Mónica is not alone. 60% of employees said in a 2022 survey that their professional development and goals have been cut a little short at their current jobs.
Even if there’s a big focus on learning and development (L&D) in a team, chances are that personal goals do not take priority in the overall business strategy.
And yet, when Mónica was seeking out a mentor to push forward on her personal goals, she ended up with marketable leadership and communication skills that’ll lift her and her team up with it.
The power of mentorship is that personal or business goals can be fulfilled on an individual basis. Does this seem interesting or would you like to step in Mónica’s footsteps? Let’s book an introductory call or talk about mentorship for your team today.
+
*