Guidance Counselors

I stumbled across a post on Facebook the other day which asked a number of arcane trivia questions such as can you name the last five winners of collegiate football’s Heisman Trophy or the last five recipients of the Academy Award for Best Actor/Actress.

I have to admit that I managed only a few correct answers. Despite being a lifelong sports fan, I could not tell you off the top of my head who took home the Heisman in 2010. Nor did I know who carted home an Oscar that same year.

Then the same post asked to name five people who had an impact on your life – in a positive way of course – and not surprisingly the answers came a lot easier. Sadly, those with a negative effect came equally fast – but that’s fodder for another column.

I bring this subject for today’s missive as I recently saw a study conducted by the Accountemps division of accounting and finance concern Robert Half on mentoring. Accountemps polled more than 2,000 financial professionals on mentoring of which 86 percent responded that having a mentor was important for career development.

Tell me something else I didn’t already know.

The accounting profession historically, has never forged a reputation for rapid adoption on anything. But over the past several years, I have noticed many of the mid-sized and larger firms have recognized how critical mentoring is to their younger employees with regard to recruiting and more importantly, retention.

There’s probably nothing more discouraging than beginning a career and being given no direction and feedback – except when something goes wrong. I’ve unfortunately held more of those positions than I should have.

Talk about a pesticide for enthusiasm.

But if you’re fortunate enough to have been assigned a mentor on day one it still cannot be a one-sided relationship. Some of the onus will be on you to keep in regular contact and not be afraid to query their advice if you run into a problem.

Take advantage of their experience with regard to trends in the profession – or gasp, get advice on internal politics of the firm.

I’m sure there’s a study somewhere that compares retention levels of mentored employees to ones that are left foundering on their own. And I’m willing to wager that it’s skewed drastically in favor of the former.

And if you’re fortunate enough to have a mentor, don’t be remiss in showing your appreciation for their guidance.

I always have and still do.