Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Mentor to Advance Your Career

eLearning Friends need a mentor to help with their development through the Master Trainer program. Coaches from the WA and QLD campuses have teamed up to give you a guide on how to choose one.

In many aspects of life we seek out and rely on mentors. We are not always aware that those in whom we trust for advice and guidance are actually mentoring us but the reality is that they exist.

These are the people we turn to when we are looking to solve a problem, capitalise on an opportunity, or further develop our knowledge and skills. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a mentor as: …a person who gives another person help and advice over a period of time and often also teaches them how to do their job.’

Let’s now explore how to choose a mentor and why a mentor will help you not only throughout your studies, but for the rest of your fitness career.

Who would be a good mentor for me?

It’s a good idea to have a few mentors to afford you a balanced, round perspective. You could choose your own Personal Trainer or someone at your gym, but Personal Trainers need to be multi-skilled across several areas so you might choose to have one mentor for business concepts, and another for PT specific skills. Either way, look for someone who has a considerable skill-set and experience to match. Word of mouth is a powerful tool, so ask around to see who might be in a position to exist.

So what should you look for in a mentor?

• Someone to provide help and support that will empower you and give you the confidence to know that you can achieve success in your Master Trainer course.
• Someone to help you achieve your goal of becoming a fitness professional.
• Someone to create an informal environment in which you can feel encouraged to discuss your needs and circumstances openly and in confidence with a person who is in a position to be of positive help.

What can a mentor do for me?

Simply talking about what you are learning and experiencing in class is a great springboard for discussion. A mentor might be able to help clarify and solidify concepts that you are not sure about. They will also be able to relate how the knowledge and skills that you are enquiring will be put into practice in the real world’. Meeting people in industry and networking is another huge advantage that will help you hit the ground running when you graduate.

How often should I engage?

There is no golden rule about how often or what format your meetings should take. If a person is offering their thoughts and advice for free you should be flexible and fit in to their schedule. After all, if they are successful they will be busy and these are the sorts of people who would want to associate with. You might ask to join in with them while they are working out so you can chat throughout. You might offer to buy them lunch once a month.

Remember, we all have mentors and finding a good one for your Master Trainer course will not only assist you in becoming a high calibre Warrior against SeDS, but will give you a great springboard into the fitness industry thereafter.

• Bio

AIF

The Australian Institute of Fitness

The Australian Institute of Fitness (AIF) is the largest and longest established fitness training organisation in Australia, with dynamic training methods and expert course coaches nationwide - spanning fitness, massage and nutrition. The AIF qualifies more fitness professionals than any other provider in Australia, as well as offering a broad range of continuing education courses (CEC), upskilling resources and partnership programs for existing industry.