How and Where to find a Mentor?

[nilesuan]

How and where can one find a mentor? And how do you ask for apprenticeship?

Starting on your own and learning everything on your own is good, but I feel having a mentor is highly valuable. To be able to learn from someone with experience, and discuss with him/her your ideas. Problem is I don't know where and how to start, can anyone please point me in the right direction?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Nile,

I never ever hear of people talking about mentors or apprenticeship in this particular industry, so I'm sorry but I don't know of any options for you.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@nilesuan

As Linda said, in this industry there?s not much talk about ?mentoring? as such.

There aren?t really ?apprentices? here; of course, that term refers to an arrangement where Old Guy teaches Young Guy about the craft (for free) until Young Guy is good enough to work as Old Guy?s employee. It?s a barter transaction.

But there are mentoring relationships here, in the sense that people learn from others. At least in this industry, that relationship can pretty much only take one of two forms:

1. You find experts to ?follow.? You read all their stuff - and the stuff they read and recommend - and maybe you get to know them. They may answer a couple questions from time to time, but you?re not paying them for their time, so there?s only so much they can do for you. If you help them in some way, they may offer a little more help pro bono - but they (not you) decide whether your help is helpful.

2. You find experts to follow, and then pay them for consultations, where you pick their brains. That won?t be cheap, but why should it be - you?re benefiting from their experience without having to spend the time they spent. The only thing to know is that just because you bought an hour of their time doesn?t make you their ?apprentice? or entitle you to two more hours of their time ?off the meter.?

Still, either way, you?re picking the people you?d like to learn from.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for expanding on that with your sage advice Phil.

Was in too much pain last night to leave much of a reply.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Thanks for expanding on that with your sage advice Phil.

Was in too much pain last night to leave much of a reply.

You've got a generous definition of "sage."

Feel better soon!

 

[nilesuan]

Good points on both, thanks. The paying part sounds good as there won't be anything held back when learning, though it will be expensive.

 

[Dustybones]

@Nilesuan: I have some friends that do SEO and assist companies here in the states with Local SEO. What part of the Philippines are you in? If close, you guys might be able to meet up? IM me with details...

Along with what phil said, it just takes a lot of reading, following blogs, interacting with people in forums. Schedule time each day to read and then do more reading. I spend about 2 hours a day studying as it is always changing.