Young professionals can obtain valuable career guidance from a mentor—something David Black, managing director of business development at Balyasny Asset Management (BAM), has experienced firsthand. Black has been involved with a number of organizations that offer mentoring and development—including Year Up, which helps young adults obtain skills and experience to excel in college and their careers. Black has also benefited from mentor-mentee relationships during his 19 years in the financial industry, working at companies such as StreetAccount, Quadra Advisors and Point72. “I have been fortunate in my career that whenever I’ve faced significant challenges, I’ve been able to lean on mentors to help me see around the corner,” David Black said in an interview with IdeaMensch. “It is key in any industry, and without question in finance, that you have to identify great mentors early on in your career.”
Explore about black investment help - From instruction on how to advance in a specific field to tips on becoming more efficient, mentors can help position professionals who are just starting out in the industry for future success. Arranging for Career Assistance: Mentors can often provide helpful, professional direction, ranging from holding you accountable to career goals to steering mentees toward specific disciplines that align with their individual talents and interests—which can be an effective way to determine the best career path. As David Black told IdeaMensch, “To be successful, first and foremost, you have to identify what you’re good at and love to do.” Working professionals who participated in a 2020 survey about mentoring said the most helpful aspect of their mentorship had been new skill acquisition, followed by the ability to develop a new career plan.
A Much-Needed Networking Asset: The majority of professionals—80%—feel networking is an important component of career success, according to a LinkedIn survey. Studies have found it can play a role in finding a new job— according to one report; networking may actually be the most effective way to obtain new employment; professionals ranked it ahead of online job boards, recruiters, and other techniques. When people aren’t specifically looking for a job change, they’re less likely to be proactive about networking. Despite 79% of professionals agreeing that networking is a valuable move for career progression, when people are content with their current role, less than half, 48%, keep in touch with their professional network. Identifying the Ideal Mentoring Situation: Although more than half (53%) of the organizations surveyed by A Billion + Change—a campaign designed to mobilize corporate America to provide skills-based and other volunteer services—said mentoring was one of the ways they were addressing community needs, it isn’t a practice all companies have embraced. Evidence, though, suggests matching mentors with mentees can be an extremely effective career development tool that both employees and employers can benefit from. Mentorships have been shown to have an effect on recruiting and retention; Deloitte research found young employees who intended to stay with their employer for more than five years were twice as likely to have an established mentor relationship.
