Assistant Director for Professional Development
Whether you have a job or are looking for one, the following is a list of 10 types of people that you should strive to have in your career network. You may never achieve having relationships with all these types of people, but if you find them, nurture the association as they are important people for your career development:
- The Mentor: This person has achieved a level of success (position, work-life balance, type of work) that you also hope to achieve one day. You can learn about their achievements, but also about their failures and how they learned from them.
- The Coach: This should be someone who provides an objective perspective to help you with critical decisions and transitions. They don't necessarily need to be in the legal profession.
- The Sponsor: This person is different from the mentor and coach in that they promote you to others, whether it is for certain assignments, promotions, or positions. You can't seek out someone to be a sponsor, but if you are lucky enough to have someone who is, then cherish the relationship and be appreciative.
- The Industry Insider: This is someone who has access to or knows about your chosen field and lets you know what is happening, changing and going to be big in your area of practice or the legal profession in general.
- The Trendsetter: This can and perhaps should be someone outside of the legal profession who knows a lot about new or interesting things happening before they become main stream. These people help spark your innovation and creativity.
- The Connector: This person has access to people, resources and information, and finds clever ways to make connections and find opportunities. Connectors tend to be the ones who send you emails or call if they see something of interest or beneficial to you.
- The Idealist/Visionary: This person helps you dream and brainstorm, but also helps you envision your actual plan.
- The Realist: These are not people who knock down your ideas, but make sure you have taken a realistic well researched look at what you hope to do.
- The Partner: It is important to have someone who is in a similar place and on a similar path so you can share resources, opportunities, and information, as well as, celebrate and commiserate on the ups and downs of your respective careers.
- The Mentee: It is not only good to give back and mentor someone else who is not as far a long in their career as you, but since as a mentor you are telling someone about your achievements and failures and how they can learn from them, listening to your own self talk about this helps you put your career progression in perspective.
