(As told to Aritra Bhattacharya)

A techie is essentially like a marathon runner. His efforts need to be spread over the entire duration, unlike the burst of energy essential for a high jumper. The young engineers fail to realize this golden rule, and most end up having dissatisfactory careers. Among the many reasons, the single most influencing factor would be the lack of mentors who could show the way.

The process of mentorship should begin right from the time the techies are in college. The formative years have a great impact on the eventual personalities they develop into. Institutes of learning across the country pay very little importance to this, and we end up having among us a bunch of very bright but impatient engineers.

To bridge the gap, every organization must have a robust mentorship program, with special focus on the young joinees. They need to understand the importance of the depth of knowledge and its application. One accusation is that today’s techies tend to spend too less time in a particular area, and that can the attributed to the lack of proper guidance. All the above aspects can be taken care of by a technical mentor, but what is also equally, if not more important is soft-skill mentorship. Let’s take a look at such an example.

Pritish, a techie with 5-6 years of experience was doing well in his career, having found for himself a mentor on the technical side, one who could warn him about all possible pitfalls. Suddenly, he felt an overpowering urge to launch his own company, and broke away from a promising career to fuel his impulsive aspiration. The result was what it is on 98 out of 100 such occasions: He failed. Not only did he not have the leadership skills, but also was swayed by the successful sell-off of a company launched by one of his peers.