Giving you my perspective on the differences and similarities among mentors, advisors, and sponsors in this episode.
Here's a must watch video, loosely related to this episode's topic (if you want to skip the formalities, the talk starts at 11:45). It contains a great narrative on sponsorship in the Q&A session at 37:24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWybxvfiLv4
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Shenandoa Toote Copyright 2019, Science Sisters
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So you thought STEM only stood for science, technology, engineering and math. What about "stereotype threats erase motivation?" When Dr. Shenandoa Toote realize there were not many other woman of color in her scientific fields of study, she not only determined to be a role model but also to connect with other accomplished black woman. Welcome to the science sisters podcast, the resulting show that allows you to step into the lives of some of these woman for a day.
Shenandoa::
So today's episode is taking a little break from the interviews to address a topic that's really important and that some people may or may not have had some instruction on how these different terminology or different, so the terms mentor, advisor and sponsor are used often in these fields in STEM. And sometimes mentor advisor are words that are used interchangeably, but they are not the same. And also a sponsor or something that I recently learned about, but it's actually a very key part to play in your career path. So I like to talk about specifically what my understanding is of these different terms and how they be helpful for you in your career. So let's start with an advisor. Advisor is probably the more common of the three terms because we tend to have advisors when we're in school at lower levels. They have a school advisors, sometimes they're called them counselors.
They, they kind of know about your, your academics and they know about what your trajectory is. Probably gonna look like what kind of colleges you can apply to if you're in high school, what kind of job opportunities there may or may not be as internships for the summer and different opportunities. Usually. Usually this information is something that an advisor would have. If you're in college, you might be assigned an advisor, someone who is supposed to be able to give you some career advice. They're not though invested in you necessarily as a person. Now, an advisor and a mentor can be one in the same person. But if you can, it's best to have multiple people in your life to create a network of your, for yourself, of people that you can go to for advice in different areas. And that could be for personal, someone you could go and you specifically usually will request some personal advice perhaps is, um, how to, how to work in after school projects that will help you to get to the career that you want.
Or perhaps it's how to deal with a family while you're studying or perhaps it's just how to get a custom to the new city that you're living in, how to deal with being homesick. If you're in an area that's away from home, what are some resources that you would have around the town you live in or perhaps on the campus if you're currently in college? Um, these are, these are some things that I would kind of put into a personal category. And then you can also have people that will be involved in your professional life and these people are ones that you go to. Either it could be specifically for the science or the research that you're doing. If it's a, for something that's in an entrepreneurial fields might be actually showing you how the business works, kind of taking you by the hand. You kind of can follow them and see how things work.
Um, or another thing professionally, they might just be to tell you what are some good options for you in terms of what you could end up doing and you might not know about these different options. They can tell you about these things. And so usually at least personally and professionally, and then within your personal and professional, um, big categories, if you can have people, maybe smaller ones, so you can, you can ask a lot of different people for input and not really wear out one person because if you only have one person that you go to for advice, whether you perceive them as a mentor or an advisor, they're going to eventually feel as though they see you a little too often. So you don't want to wear out your welcome with people that you have personal interactions with over time, you get a sense of what kind of frequency you can really contact people with.
Is it once a month, is it once every two weeks? Is it once a quarter? So once every three months. That really depends on the individual that you're dealing with and your relationship with them. So an advisor and a mentor can be similar. A mentor usually just has more investment in you as an individual. So in addition to knowing about your academics, they know what your personal story is. They're interested in you as a person. They want to see you succeed individually. So, um, I'll give examples from my own life, people that I have, there are some people who perhaps perceived themselves to be mentors for me. Um, but if they had an entirely different goal for me professionally than I did for myself, then I consider that person an advisor because they really either do not know about what it is I want or feel like it's best if they disregard what it is that I want in order to give me advice to go for something else that they perceive is a better fit.
And that's not to say that sometimes you may have things that you can do that are better fit. But for me, I didn't take that on as a mentor because it's very important to me to have an enjoyment in the work that I do and feel as though it is contributing to society in some way, some fashion, some shape or form. And if I am directed to go into a profession where I feel as though I am not contributing to society in a positive way, that is not a job that I'm going to be able to do and still be happy with myself at the end of the day and have a clear conscience that I am doing my best work, I'm giving my best contribution to society. So for me, a mentor really has to understand your personal drive and your ambition at a different level than just your academics and what your, what your score card says, what's your report card says what, what your exam says, what your with your licensing exam says and know that there's a combination between what your capabilities are academically and also your personal insights and personal goals.
So that's what I would say would be the main difference between an advisor and a mentor. I believe that they are separate but can be the same and, and a sponsor is entirely different story, but it's imperative that everybody has one. So a a sponsor actually is an individual who will put their reputation on the line and go to bat for you behind closed doors. Now what this would look like is, for example, if you are in academia, we're saying you're going to be in research, you want to be a professor and you have done certain number of research projects. Over time you've got together some written recommendations and there's gotta be a committee meeting you cannot attend. You have to be able to have identified someone that you can say when they are speaking behind those doors, will you support me for the profession ship?
You have to be able to, you have to be able to have someone that you can ask that question and you can get a yes answer. Those people are usually people who are in a higher position and an organization. For example, if it's a a medical school or university with a medical focus, it might be a chair chair person, a chair woman, a chairman or someone who is at a higher level. They have a lot of responsibility and probably won't really get to know you as a person, but they might have an opportunity to see them in the elevator and just give a 32nd pitch. It says, hi, this is, this is who I am. This is a project that I'm working on and really like a chance to, to sit with you for five minutes to talk about something. I've just seen that they get to, they get to be where they're accustomed with your face.
You can give them a copy of your resume and they can, they can decide whether or not they think that you're going to be a good fit, as long as there could be somebody that knows you really well if they are at a position where they would have a vote in a situation where it could be for, for you to get a certain job, uh, for you to get a grant or for you to, for you to do something, something that is weighty and ive important in your, in your career. So, so these are the main differences. So just to, to recap the advisor, really just think of it as a person who kind of just knows what your report card looks like. A mentor knows that you're a poor card looks like, but they also know what your personal goals and desires are and can merge the two and get you some ideas, some insights, some, some tips and things that are specific to you as a person.
And then this far through is somebody who when a committee is meeting and there's to be a decision made about you professionally, whether or not you're going to be able to advance to the next level. There are somebody who will say, yes, I'm going to vote yes for you behind the closed doors. You can count on my vote, uh, and I want to see you to move forward professionally. So those are the major differences between each of those terminologies as far as I best understand them. And I hope that that also helps to provide you with some clarity.
So have you found any value in this particular lesson? If there's something else that you're really, you don't really know who to ask about, make sure you go ahead and comment, like, and subscribe this, this channel, this podcast, and your comment. Just let me know what is a topic that you would like to know some more about. What is something that you have questions about and you don't really know who you can ask. Put those in the comments. I'm going to look at those and I'll be able to put in some more topics that are related to what is going to really help you as a person who's listening in and can get value from the messages here. So may love and light be in your life today and always.