The accompanying and mentoring process for young engineers

Abstract

It is very important to accompany young people who start their engineering practice in a company. The presence of an experienced and appreciative mentor, who gives a good orientation to the young persons, facilitates the development, not only of their lives as employees, but, potentially, their entire life as professionals and human beings. Valuable mentoring leads to the creation of spaces of trust that open the mind of the young engineer towards learning and acceptance of experiences and criteria. In this way, the mentor can transmit wisdom, motivation, visions and values, while, at the same time, managing doubts, concerns and expanding perspectives. The author has a long experience in these mentoring processes and presents here several concepts related to it. The human potential is the basis of the process, described, fundamentally, in terms of communications. Criteria of success are proponed and considerations on the environment that facilitates and stimulates achievements. The difficulties and the way of overcoming them are examined, with emphasis on focusing the process with a long-term vision and with values, adequately defining the work areas to be developed in the accompaniment process. The concept of personal talent mining and of mentoring as an art is presented, as a basis for the methodology to carry on a good mentoring process.