All You Need To Know About The LinkedIn Mentor Program

No matter at what stage of your startup or career you find yourself, having a mentor is always helpful to progress your development. Just like networking can help grow your business, having a mentor can help you make the right choices and lower your chances of failure. The problem is, finding a mentor is not easy. The solution, currently in development, may come in the form of the Linkedin Mentor programme.

What is it all about?

This news was reported by Fast Company. According to the article, Hari Srinivasan, director of product management at Linkedin, made this announcement. The need for the Linkedin Mentor programme is apparent. Very few people manage to find a suitable mentor through networking. Many expect this number to continue to decrease as people spend less time in the company of others.

Linkedin is rolling out this free service in stages and it is not currently available to Maltese users. Once available in your country, you will be able to choose to be a mentor or mentee. Linkedin will then use its analytics and calculation program to link suitable mentors with mentees. The process is all automated.

As you look for a mentor you will need to refine your search by region, work experience etc. They will also ask you to be specific on the type of mentoring you are looking for. You could need some startup advice, but you could also be looking for career progression or education advice. As with most algorithms, the more information you provide, the more accurate the mentor you get will be.

The opportunity for you.

The Linkedin Mentor programme will be able to find you one or more mentors by analysing its database of over 500 million members globally. Once the Linkedin algorithm finds a mentor for you, Linkedin’s help does not stop there. Many entrepreneurs find it difficult to start a conversation. This is why the social media platform will also facilitate the first conversation. Linkedin will find common interests and provide tips to give and get good advice.

The Mentor programme is not specifically designed to foster a long term relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Its goal is for you to get important answers quickly. Something similar already exists on sites such as Quora or Reddit. The difference is that little is known about the persons providing the answers. There is, of course, only so much that the media giant can do. It will then be up to the individual users to make the Linkedin Mentor programme a success.