How to Morph from Parent to Mentor

How to Morph from Parent to Mentor

If your recent college grad has no clue what to do with the coveted college degree, this newsletter is for you. If they haven’t landed the perfect job in the perfect company, living in the perfect city with the perfect room-mates at the perfect salary, even if you have raised them in the perfect school district and paid for them to go to the perfect college, it’s ok.

If you hear them complaining, or sighing with worry, or apathetic and disillusioned, here is your go to phrase: “Try everything – except doing nothing. It will work out.” They may roll their eyes at you, but stick with the advice and deliver it in a way that brings out your Mentor voice, rather than your Parent voice. (There are some delivery tips on this below).

Here are few more great phrases to use when you see them sitting on LinkedIn or Indeed, playing video games all hours of the night, relishing just a little too much, the idea of going back to their old high school job of lifeguard for the summer, or just hanging out on social media with their friends.

1) Each job you get will help you learn something entirely new and that’s just one more skill you will have to help get the next job.
Delivery: Every time you can add another Skill to your LinkedIn profile, the better, because individual skills, including new software platforms, are really important to add to your college degree.

2) Every new position you have will help you eliminate career paths that aren’t well suited to you.
Delivery: New positions are being created every single day. Don’t worry if you don’t like the first or second one you have, it takes the average person 5 jobs before they figure out what they really want to do and what they’re good at, and the earlier you do it in your career the better because you don’t have any major responsibilities.

3) Who cares what your friends are doing. It’s your life you have to live, not theirs and how do you know that they are really happy? They may just be putting a brave face on it.
Delivery: Did you know that 75% of the workforce are not happy in their jobs, not because they don’t earn enough money, but because they didn’t manage their careers well and are in the wrong jobs for their natural skills and personality! Can you imagine? So take a few jobs, learn what you like and dislike, and then pay attention so you can make good decisions when you’re ready to move on.

4) No job is beneath you right now. Just take the job and be the best employee you can be and you will be discovered.
Delivery: I know you think that working a job that you’re overqualified for isn’t a good idea because you’re too good for it, but a friend of mine was hired for a great corporate job right out of Starbucks because her customer service and efficiency was so strong and a customer noticed! And did you know that Elon Musk had 6 jobs before he went back to grad school, one of which involved shimmying through a little tunnel to shovel steaming hot sand and goop and other residue from the boiler room of a lumber mill.