Mentorship, as you know it, is dead

by Sasha VanHoven- Associate Editor and Community Manager of 99U.com

“Your Network is the New Mentor”

“Mentors themselves aren’t extinct, the models under which they used to exist are. Now, it’s easier than ever to look to our peers for guidance. What made the traditional apprenticeship-style mentoring work was hierarchy. The master trains the young. The young blossoms under tutorship and becomes the master. The first master can finally retire to Florida, now that his legacy is protected and maintained. Repeat.
But here in the internet-obsessed Networked Age, hierarchy is increasingly flat. Not just in the organizational sense (as some companies like Medium and Zappos move away from managers altogether), but in the way that we connect to one another. It’s not person-to-person, but person-to-people. Networking is constantly listed as a necessary step in every article or book written about what you need to do to be successful—but no where will you find even one of them stipulating that the connections you make must be only to those older than you, or more experienced, or in your field, in order for it to be useful”

Learn more about Sasha’s views on mentoring in the modern age here