Understandably, Mentorship has existed forever. Or at least ever since people started having friends and spending time in groups, which yeah checks out as forever. I mean it makes sense, at its core, mentorship is just helping others succeed and be nice, and people naturally like to do this. The more established hunters in cave people society probably took the time to show young upstarts how it’s done. That part isn’t researched. However, despite mentorship being an ancient and innate thing, the way that mentorship exists and people use it has changed enormously.
Obviously, mentorship is no longer you are chosen to do a job at 12 as an apprentice and then get one on one tutelage in that specific area forever. But it exists similarly, right? You start a job and someone in the office takes you under that wing and become them. I mean sort of. Mentorship can exist like that, and it’s valid. Excitingly, mentorship also now exists in a million different ways, and here are a few exciting ones that you may not have heard of.
REVERSE MENTORSHIP
A huge mentorship trend is reverse mentorship, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Companies and corporations have pretty much always been run by older people, it makes sense. However, corporations are trying to be more in touch with youth and youth trends, so they bring in reverse mentors, basically, kids who teach older people how to use smartphones and social media, and inform them how young people think.
TECH MENTORSHIP
Another mentorship trend in a similar vein is tech mentorship, where mentors specifically brought in for tech are being used more than ever, as tech starts to take over pretty much every role in every industry ever. This helps people avoid being pushed out of their jobs due to innovation, which is a big relief for everyone who still isn’t sure what an HDMI cable is (me).
MULTIPLE MENTORSHIP
A huge new trend is multiple mentorship. Which once again is pretty self-explanatory. People are seeking out multiple mentors to help them adapt and succeed in a world defined by cross-functionality.
ONLINE MENTORSHIP
Shameless plug, but yes, here we are changing the game !!!! Online mentorship (which is what Mentorly does) has the added benefit of being accessible to people who may not be able to find a mentor through traditional routes (800-year-old storied art families, fraternity brothers, other rich people things), it also helps make the world a little smaller and more interconnected.
One of the most important things about mentorship now is that it’s being used pretty much all the time for everything. It’s a standard in all companies across pretty much all industries, and we’re so here for that. We love people sticking their neck out to help other people.
by Lesley Borowski