The Remarkable Power of Mentorship from the Perspective of an 18-year-old

Nothing great is ever achieved in isolation - well, apart from, maybe, when you’re in COVID-enforced self-isolation...

But seriously, we all need help to navigate the rapidly shifting, technology-fuelled, changing world of work, and a chance to develop better real-world understandings of emerging jobs and workforce skills in order to make more informed decisions about our own future plans and possibilities.

Part of that is having a template to see what’s out there and a chance to go ‘inside’ the world of work and meet people, either face-to-face or virtually. And that’s where industry mentors play an increasingly crucial role, particularly for young people exploring and planning their future study and career pathways.

girledworld was founded on a problem - girls can’t be what they can’t see. 

Our award-winning work with 30,000 students, and both global and local mentors over the past 3 years, is delivered in the knowledge that young women critically need access to a diverse range of role models and mentors in multiple industries and at all levels of organisations, including at the top, so their eyes are opened, aspirations expanded and future career possibilities ignited. 

Research shows that mentorship is a powerful indicator of future success. Young people need to find someone who really believes in them, their abilities and future potential, and backs them as they start taking small steps toward their big personal north stars. This can make all the difference.

But actually finding a mentor, work experience or industry placements can be pretty daunting and intimidating for students who are still working out who they are, and have no idea where to look or what to look for. 

On top of that, for disadvantaged students, it can be difficult to connect with professional or highly skilled industry networks, or to overcome multiple barriers to access of mentorship and work experience. 

In fact a report revealed that students from disadvantaged or low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds benefit the most from industry mentorship or work experience, but are least able to access it while at high school. This lack of access is attributed to geographical isolation and low ‘social capital’ for these students, such as a family’s limited social connections with individuals in desired career fields.

The report also stated that mentorship and work experience is one of the best drivers of students’ academic outcomes, career aspirations and self-confidence, especially for high-potential students whose aspirations aren’t consistently reinforced by family, friends and at school.

Currently in Australia, only about 30% of students access to up-to-date career information, work experience or mentorship, and this is a hidden weakness in Australia’s career development strategy, and means that SES is a strong predictor of the post-school destinations and pathways undertaken by young Australians. 

We therefore need more online solutions providing high quality virtual work experience and industry mentorship to solve this access problem for students, bridge the SES divide, and better link education with future jobs, skills and industries. At Future Amp we’re working on that. Watch this space!

But the good news is it’s not all bad news!

There are some students who are fortunate enough to access work experience and reap the benefits. This is often facilitated through formal program providers, school initiatives or by reaching out to family friends or personal connections. But this is often more an exercise in accessibility or convenience rather than tapping a student’s real passions or genuine career interest areas.

So the best way for a student to explore options, jobs and industries and expand their frame of reference is through access to high quality career education and industry mentorship early on in their high school journey so they can explore interests, and get a head start on building skills and developing strengths while still at school.

In fact, the power of an inspiring mentor can leave lasting and life-altering impacts on a student searching for answers and greater direction as they embark on the great adventure of life and work beyond high school.

2019 year 12 Haileybury student Michelle Doan, who is headed to Harvard later this year to begin an undergraduate degree, credits an incredible group of Melbourne mentors with helping to shape her outlook on learning and future career prospects.

At the start of 2019, she successfully gained a summer internship with Girledworld where she shadowed Co-founders Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski to see what they do as entrepreneurs and forward thinkers. That same year, Michelle also participated in the Girledworld Workplace Mentoring Program with UniSuper Chief Delivery and Information Officer Anna Leibel as her mentor. 

“I spent a day with Anna and her team on International Women’s Day to learn about their work, and her team later kindly offered for me to come in during the holidays to show me other departments I might be interested in. Through this, I was able to explore fields I never even thought of working in, such as cybersecurity, governance, risk and financial crime - all of which were incredibly fascinating!,” Michelle says.

It wasn’t just the insight into career pathways that she found valuable, but the broader significance of seeing females excelling in industries like finance and entrepreneurship that have long been the primary domain of men.

“While my mentorship experience definitely gave me insight into career pathways, being mentored by female leaders, in particular, showed me that girls could excel in industries that may otherwise be male-dominated. I’m a strong believer in “girls cannot be what they cannot see”, so female mentorship has played a really significant role in my perspective of what I can achieve,” she says.

The Australian school system currently has a heavy focus on academic performance, but Michelle says workplace mentoring helped her to understand the value of employability skills such as communication and leadership.

“The biggest takeaway for me was that the world of work is becoming incredibly dynamic. Also, to excel at what you do, it’s very important to develop workforce skills such as communication and leadership rather than only technical skills. It also seems like the world of work is becoming much more interdisciplinary, especially with the way tech is changing the face of (pretty much) every industry out there,” she says.

“In terms of my outlook now, I am definitely trying to develop my “softer” skills after realising how valuable they are. I’ve realised that in 10-20 years, there will be jobs that never existed before. Technology, the emerging gig economy and maybe even the Covid-19 pandemic will change the job landscape completely, so I’ve learned that versatility and the willingness to grow is the most important thing!”

Finding a good mentor fit can be a challenge, though, particularly for high school students.

“I would say that as high school students, it is quite hard to get access to useful info because oftentimes you’re not qualified enough to apply to a lot of the internships that allow you to explore the world of work,” Michelle says.

Her advice?

“The biggest piece of advice I could give is to just put yourself out there. A good place to start would be applying for internships, work experience, or projects you’re passionate about. (Eg: research projects, volunteering for a cause etc…) Once you’re in the internship/project, you’ll be introduced to people in the industry, and it’ll sort of be a domino effect where those people you know will introduce you to even more people, and soon you’ll be connected to a network of people that you can reach out to.”

“Another way would be to research organisations that seem interesting, which can be done by simply keeping an eye out on social media. Perhaps you’ll see an opportunity pop up on your Instagram or Facebook feed (may be through ads), or even your LinkedIn feed, which you can then further look into or reach out to and grab coffee to learn about them. While this can be daunting, I do feel like a lot of professionals are very keen to help young people looking to learn. 

So definitely just give it a go!”

Thanks so much for sharing your insights, Michelle.
We can’t wait to see your North Star shining bright - and good luck at Harvard!

For more on mentoring listen to this ABC Episode of This Working Life with Lisa Leong and girledworld Cofounder + CEO Madeleine Grummet on The Power Of A Good Mentor, read this ABC article, or join us for virtual Workplace Mentoring in partnership with the Victorian State Government until June.