Mentor or Coach

For anyone actively looking for a new job or for a new career direction, part of the preparation or research process would probably involve thinking about their core competencies and reflecting on specific situations where they were able to demonstrate those particular traits throughout their career.

What’s your career pathway?

It can be a very daunting task looking at your career and asking yourself: “So, where do I go next?”

None of us are great at answering this question by ourselves hence we often turn to our friends and family for advice. This can result in circular conversations where your loved ones try desperately to give you the right advice but end up leaving you more even more confused.

So what do you do in these situations?

You find someone who is an expert in the field of career advice: enter the Career Coach. These professionals usually work for consultancies and specialise in clarifying your career direction, helping you understand & build your unique strengths, and work with you to develop new skills relevant to your chosen pathway.

However, what if this is only half of the picture? After many discussions around this topic, I believe there is another vital role in this space: the Career Mentor.

Mentor vs. Coach

So what is the difference between a Coach and a Mentor?

I recently spoke to Ray Brown, Founder of LifeMentoring.com, on this topic and he used this example to illustrate the key differences:

“I typically use the analogy of climbing a mountain to differentiate between coaching and mentoring. The coach will assist you in deciding which mountain, when to climb, and to test your resolve as you set out on your personal adventure. The mentor, on the other hand, will already have climbed your selected “mountain” and will therefore be able to advise you on the best “routes”, the possible hazards and the most appropriate mindsets to ensure success.”

Essentially a ‘Career Mentor’ is someone who has already been where you currently are in your career, they’ve made the transition or career change you’re trying to achieve, or they simply have already gone through the same professional hardships that you’re dealing with right now. This person isn’t necessarily older, more experienced or any wiser than you; they will simply “already have climbed your selected mountain”.

Why both coach & mentor are essential

A Career Coach is an extremely useful resource and I would highly recommend that if you’re considering making a career transition or looking to elevate your career in any way you should most definitely look into employing one. They will be able to:

– Assist you in identifying your weaknesses
– Build on your strengths and unique characteristics
 – Set you up with new skills ready to take on a plethora of new challenges
– Help you choose your pathway

The problem is that once you begin to undertake these challenges the chances that your Career Coach has actually gone through exactly what you are going through is slim therefore they would be unable to provide the unique insights that a Career Mentor would be able to.

On many occasions during the initial interview, the candidate would tell me that he or she was totally in control of their decision making process. Then, a few weeks later when an offer was looking more likely, they would call me to tell me that their spouse wasn’t happy with the salary or the amount of travel involved, or that their parents weren’t happy with long hours expected in the new role.

If you know that there are others who genuinely care about you and your career, make sure that you involve them from the outset. That way you won’t be faced with any nasty surprises at the 11th hour where you might have to tell a recruiter or your potential new employer that you need more time to think about an offer, knowing that you now really need to discuss it with ‘significant others’.