My Gen Y Life

One of the greatest pieces of advice I received in college was to develop a relationship with at least one of my professors each semester. This would give me a network of professors that would support me, share advice with me, and (maybe most importantly) be able to write recommendations for me.

The same rule applies to your career, too. If you make the effort to build relationships with mentors you will have greater success both personally and professionally. Here are the tips I recommend:

Build a relationship with at least 2 mentors each year
Logistically, you could start a new mentorship every six months. Some companies help by providing this kind of "service" to their employees to promote career development. Kudos to those that do. If you're at a majority of the companies that don't, you can initiate the mentorship either formally or informally.

Choose mentors outside of your bubble
Your manager is likely some kind of mentor to you, but you would enhance your experience by going outside your comfort zone and meeting with someone you hardly know. Use your manager to get suggestions of persons to mentor with. Find a mentor that works in a field or specialty that interests you but that you may not have experience in. You never know, it might be the catalyst for pursuing a new area.

Starts with "me"
As a mentee the ball is in your court to develop the relationship and think of questions and ideas to discuss. As long as the mentor is okay with it, you can gain valuable insight beyond just the basic job information into things like how to negotiate, where to go on vacation, and how they maintain a work/life balance.

Once you have a network of mentors, you'll find that you get more exposure in the business, become more knowledgeable, and stand out more to your manager.