Do you work in marketing? Find out how a mentor can help you!

The field of marketing is known for bringing together many professionals from various backgrounds. Unlike accounting, for example, you can become a marketing professional without ever having obtained a degree in this discipline.

Obviously, the current labour shortage makes marketing jobs even more accessible to workers with atypical backgrounds. As a result, we can find "juniors" who have been on the job market for more than 15 years and "seniors" who have not even turned 30.

In this context, mentoring can be of great help, whether it is to disseminate the more theoretical knowledge or to make everyone benefit from the varied backgrounds of each person. A mentor can be a guide, a consultant and a coach. Here are five ways you can benefit from mentoring in marketing:

Sharing life lessons
The most valuable thing a mentor can do for the next generation of marketing professionals? Offer them life lessons, both in terms of successes and failures. Marketing is about challenges and no other source will tell you how to overcome them... and learn from the failures.

Open yourself to other experiences
Because marketing straddles the line between many related fields, your mentor will probably know a lot of things you never thought you'd know, whether it's graphic design, programming or statistics. Knowing that experience is the best teacher, he or she will allow you to experiment and expand your horizons.

Show you where they get their inspiration
Your mentor is an endless source of resources. That said, he or she too draws inspiration from a variety of sources and may have some reading recommendations for you.
Ask them what podcasts to listen to, what newsletters to subscribe to, or what influencers to follow to keep you up to date on new marketing trends. Build that appetite for learning new things.

Better meet your specific needs
Different roles require different ways of being supported. Be clear with your mentor about your expectations. Obviously, someone fresh out of university will not be mentored in the same way as someone with many years of experience. Whatever your goal, make sure you are clear about your needs. If they are not clear to you, they will be even less clear to your mentor.

Openness is the key to success
Encourage your mentor to offer constructive feedback to improve your mentoring progress. Welcome his or her candor as a solution that will allow you to grow quickly and effectively.