What Makes a Good Mentor?

Everyone should have a mentor when trying to achieve something difficult in life. In science, mentors are unavoidable. 

They play an essential role. You need research experience to become a scientist, and mentorship is a central part of that research experience. In fact, in graduate school, your training and research is really built off of your advisor (AKA your mentor) and not courses or classes. 

Therefore, choosing a good mentor is crucial for your success as a scientist. And to be honest, being a scientist myself and having worked with many other scientists, finding a good one can be hard – it’s not the default. It’s also hard to tell if someone is going to be a good mentor before you start working with them. 

In this episode of the Fancy Scientist podcast, I offer you six key factors that I’ve found to make a great mentor. I reminisced on all of my past mentors – good and bad – and pulled out the characteristics that they had that helped me grow as a scientist the most. I also talk about what you can do to be a good mentor if you have students or oversee employees. 

Even if you aren’t in science, you can still benefit from this episode. Finding a good mentor has been critical to my own health and career as an entrepreneur. 

Specifically, I’ll talk about:

• Why having a good mentor is crucial to your success and you can’t do it alone (or at least as fast)
• The six things that are most important in a mentor – even if they are hard to take or you may not like them at first
• My experiences dealing with mentors who were very honest with me
• What you can do to be a good mentor yourself
• and MORE!

Get a free chapter of my book “Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know” to see how I can help you in your career: https://stephanieschuttler.com/getting-a-job-in-wildlife-biology-book/ 

Want to learn about cool animals, conservation, and get tips about careers in wildlife biology, science, and more? Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/StephanieSchuttler and join my email list: https://stephanieschuttler.com/ 

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