Question

In 200 Words, give an example of your own experience with regard to coaching,  counseling, or mentoring. How such experience has helped you in your career as a student, an employee, or an employer?

Answer 1

It is an example of mentoring which i received as a part of the young talent development scheme of my first employer. It was a scheme in which every fresher ( new hires direct from the college) was assigned to one of the senior members of the middle management who shared his /her experiences and made the learning as well as the way ahead for the youngsters.

I was assigned to Mr. wilson, who was working in the company for past four years and had an overall work experience of 10 years. Mr Wilson asked me to take a note of the mutual interactions among the employees at different levels for first two weeks. He said " If you understand how people interact with one another, and know how to manage them, you are through. With a fresh degree in Industrial  I did not see much merit in his statement, but now I realise that managing people is far more difficult than managing machines or any other resources, and more crucial than any other aspect of a manager's role. The other things which I learned from him, were the prioritising of tasks, time management and negotiation with suppliers and customers, conflict resolution at different levels of organisation among the others.

all in all, the six weeks of mentoring was a rich experience, and a set of guidelines to the real world of business, which no textbook or coursework in any university would ever teach you.