It’s not a secret that having a mentor benefits professionals in many ways. It’s a fantastic way to build your professional network, learn new skills from a senior marketer and further your career.
We recently spoke with Neil Krikul, 2021 Emerging Marketers mentee and AMI Tasmanian State Committee member, about his journey in the last year’s program and the role this experience has played in supporting his career progression.
What did you learn from your experience in the program?
A LOT. Luckily, my mentor Eve was very flexible with my needs, and she’s happy to accommodate and structure our catchup based on where I was at on my journey. The monthly topic helped guide our conversation, but we also had our own agenda.
Our monthly catchup was what was I always looking forward to, and it always went fast. Regardless, Eve was always happy to go the extra mile and not rush off. I really appreciated having her as a mentor from the program, and we still catch up even after the program.
Why do you think mentoring is important for the career of marketers?
Because it gives us a clearer direction, or even helps give us a direction at all. The common problem that most young marketers have is that they’re confused with what they should do with their career, whether they are on the right track, and what should they do?
Everyone, even world-class leaders, needs a mentor because mentors help put us on the track when we’re lost. I’d even encourage everyone to have more than one mentor because everyone is different, therefore, can offer you different things.
What were you hoping to gain from joining the mentoring program?
Honestly, just someone I can talk to about my career plan and geek out about marketing.
If you were applying for the program today, what advice would you give to yourself?
It’s a no brainer. Just do it.
How did you work together to get the most value out of the mentoring relationship?
Besides the weekly topics, we had our own discussing topics. Because I’m quite ambitious and things changed every month, we always had something new to discuss.
What do you think are the biggest challenges in navigating a career in marketing?
Finding the balance between not being ambitious and being too ambitious. I’m more towards the latter because I want to grow fast, and growth takes time. When I want to move fast, I tend to make mistakes, instead of allowing the time to nurture my growth. So I was grateful for Eve to point that out to me and be more strategic about my career planning.
On the other hand, I have also seen many marketers who are keen to move forward in their careers but aren’t putting in the work required to get there. The thing about Marketing career is, I think, that you need to take responsibility for your own growth and not wait for others to offer you the opportunity to do so.
Did you have any funny moments during the program you’d like to share?
Not really, it always went quite well.
Final note
Learning is investing, and you definitely should never invest in just one source. Some people hope that they can learn a lot from one job, but the problem with that is they only rely on one source of learning, of which they don’t know if they’re learning to go uphill or downhill.
This is why I think it is crucial for marketers to learn things outside their job, give them different perspectives, and learn things that they might never have been able to learn from the job.
The Marketing industry is getting really competitive. From what I can see, there is a big gap between great Marketers and the others, because great Marketers regularly put in the extra work to learn things, and it adds up.
Applications for Mentees and Mentors are closing on 27 March for the 2022 Emerging Marketers Mentoring Program.
The AMI Emerging Marketers Mentoring Program provides aspiring emerging marketers with an opportunity to connect with senior marketing professionals, get valuable insight into the industry and develop their skills to give them a competitive edge in their careers. Our mentors are Certified Practising Marketers who work across marketing and communications, advertising, media, and professional services.
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