How to find a mentor

Hi WSO,

Can y'all please provide some advice on how to find a free mentor? I am trying to transition careers from edtech to finance and would like to have someone to come to for advice, etc. Ideally, I would like to my next role to be related to quantitative research/algo trading in the Bay Area. I have tired doing cold outreach via LinkedIn but haven't had much success, and I am not close to anybody that works in that role. All my of data analytics skills are self taught through Quantopian and DataCamp, and I regularly use Python and SQL in my current role. Anyway, any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

10 Comments
 

Keep at it. Craft a compelling story (short and concise) that gets people's attention, demonstrates sincere interest, and shows credibility.

The way I found my mentors was I identified someone I want to be like or who has accomplished what I was hoping to achieve and reached out. People are willing to help people if they see you care enough.

Also, ask good questions. People love sharing their story and if there's one way to get people to like you and be willing to help it's to have them talk about themselves and get them to share their stories.

"Out the garage is how you end up in charge It's how you end up in penthouses, end up in cars, it's how you Start off a curb servin', end up a boss"
 

It was far more organic than finding someone and asking "hey will you mentor me?".

He had just moved back to our area from SF after he exited the startup that he founded. I took him out for beers and asked a ton of good questions and discussed what my team was building and our incremental progress. After meeting 4 times or so I finally just asked if he'd be willing to take a more formal role as a mentor and advisor and the rest is history.

The ultimate goal is to develop real relationships with people, show them you're making progress and hungry, and eventually - if they fit what you need from a mentor - it'll happen.

"Out the garage is how you end up in charge It's how you end up in penthouses, end up in cars, it's how you Start off a curb servin', end up a boss"
 

I am in a very similar situation, looking for a mentor in the same space in the bay area. Do you want to network so we can exchange notes during our search?

 

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