Finding a mentor leads to soul-nourishing job

If you’re looking for work, you already know that connections count. Having a guide or a mentor counts even more, especially when you need solid advice. But how do you find one?

By Amy Lindgren
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Here’s what Vickie Allen did.

Last spring, after 10 years as an accounts representative for major corporations, she was restless.

She wanted to feel that her work mattered.

"Corporate America was not fulfilling a need for me anymore," she said. "My soul wasn’t fed. I wasn’t waking up raring to go."

Setting her sights on the nonprofit world, Allen started her journey by talking with her older brother, Horace Allen.

Horace, who serves on the board of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities (Minnesota), told her to talk with that organization’s director, Kathleen Pickering. That call started a brief but effective mentorship between Allen and Pickering, who met once a month for three months.

With Pickering’s guidance, Allen narrowed her focus to agencies serving women and children and decided that her skills would transfer best to a fund-raising or membership position. In September, fewer than six months after she began the transition, Allen became membership director of a Girl Scout council, a job she loves.

Pickering, who often gets calls from people seeking advice, says she doesn’t allow very many of them to evolve into meetings.

The difference with Allen, she says, is that she wasn’t asking for general career advice or networking. Rather, she had a specific question: How could she make the switch from a for-profit sales career to the nonprofit world?

Pickering had a long career with the Girl Scouts before joining Big Brothers, Big Sisters. She provided Allen with contact names and numbers at a handful of organizations, including two Girl Scout offices. Allen met with the contacts and toured the facilities.

When Allen met Mary Lee Hoffman, director of the Girl Scouts of St. Croix Valley and toured the agency’s new facility, she knew what she wanted. Not long after, the Girl Scouts called to tell Allen about a job there.

"I don’t know how to explain what happened, but there was something very dynamic that took place and I knew from that point forward that that’s where I wanted to be," she said. "I went back to Kathleen and said, ‘I gotta get this deal.’ "

Pickering called Hoffman, who had worked for her in a different Girl Scouts council.

"Vickie doesn’t know this, but we talked about her behind her back. I said, ‘Mary Lee, she … wants to work for you. I think you’ve got a really good candidate.’ "

Listening, Allen laughs. She knows she was given a significant boost, and she’s grateful. "I am extremely fortunate, because I’m the product of many hands that have touched my life," she says. "I hope that I have the chance to continue to do that for others."

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

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