In the final episode of the LEAP! podcast (https://ecorner.stanford.edu/series/leap/), Tellus founder Tania Abedian-Coke (MS ’17, Management Science and Engineering) and Intercom product manager Lauren Ottinger (MA ’14, Communication) join Tina Seelig (https://engineering.stanford.edu/people/tina-seelig), Professor of the Practice in Stanford Engineering’s Department of Management Science and Engineering, to take a deep dive into mentorship.

Abedian-Coke and Ottinger converge on one insight in particular: Finding an informal mentor who has just a little more experience than you, rather than someone more established, sometimes leads to the most relevant and timely advice.

Seelig concurs: “Asking for guidance from someone who has a clear memory of what you just went through is much less daunting, and more relevant, than asking the CEO of your favorite company.”

After you find a mentor, though, you have to cultivate them. Seelig and her guests advise treating mentorship as a two-way relationship, not a one-way transaction. That means not just showing gratitude, but providing a mentor with complementary resources. If the mentor is older than you, you might serve as a sounding board on your own generation’s perspective. At the very least, consider sending a link to an interesting article now and then to keep the conversation advancing.

In the LEAP! podcast, Tina Seelig — Professor of the Practice in Stanford Engineering’s Department of Management Science and Engineering — takes a deep dive into how to launch a career. LEAP! is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

Related | Tina Seelig (https://engineering.stanford.edu/people/tina-seelig), Professor of the Practice in Management Science and Engineering.