We caught up with Tom to hear more about the journey that led him to a successful career at Waldeck and an additional role as our in-house Mentor Trainer:
Hi Tom! Why did you choose to become a mentor?
It was just a natural progression for me really, having been at Waldeck for almost a decade, I felt that I had enough knowledge and experience to be a successful mentor. I also had a strong understanding of the company’s way of working so I could support Junior members of staff very effectively and support them in every sense of their professional development.
Please can you tell us a bit about your mentoring experiences so far…
I became what I’ll term a ‘full time mentor’ just over two years ago when Finley Nottingham joined the business. He joined Waldeck straight from school with no previous experience in the public sector (Which is the same path I took). I was responsible for his initial training and continual support daily. Since then I have also Mentored two other Juniors in the same position, Tony and Harry. It’s been an interesting and rewarding experience so far. It’s nice to pass on the skills I’ve learnt and help young engineers develop.
What motivates you in your work?
My strongest asset from a young age has always been my drawing ability. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and furthermore design. I think this coupled with the large amount of time spent travelling around outdoors in my childhood years meant that Civil Engineering was something I could get really involved in. I actively enjoy being influential to the built environment and thinking holistically to ensure new infrastructure is implemented successfully.
What do you enjoy most about being a mentor?
The thing I enjoy most about being a mentor is seeing the mentees develop and start producing high quality design drawings that they are proud of.
What kind of growth or changes have you seen in your past mentees?
Over the past two years, I have seen a mentee develop into a capable and responsible individual who can be given detailed design tasks to deal with in isolation and undertake them effectively and efficiently will little assistance.
What challenges do you often face in mentoring, and how do you suggest dealing with them?
Every mentee is a different, it became apparent that not everyone learns as quickly or in the same way. Some people need more reassurance, motivation and support than others, but that’s fine. It’s just a case of assessing each individual in the early days to gain an understanding of how to get the best performance from them.
What advice would you give someone considering becoming a mentor?
Go for it, it is a very rewarding experience and along the way you will develop your own people and management skills which are a massive help in career progression.
What do you think makes a good mentor? How have you developed these traits over time?
I think several traits help, being considerate to the individual, being a good listener to identify their support needs, being patient due to the repetitive nature of teaching at times and finally, being adaptive, sometimes it pays to change the learning style to get the message across!
How do you typically structure your mentoring relationships?
I make it clear from the start I’m fully approachable to assist them at any time, they come to me when they need support, typically over teams or face to face if we are in the office.
What books, resources, or people have influenced your career the most?
People who have influenced my career most, certainly Veronica Ruby in the early days who taught me how to use AutoCAD, then David Bosworth who taught me how to use Civil 3D. Finally Tim Leach and Craig Baird who managed and supported me over several years, in the delivery of broad range of projects which developed my technical skills massively to get to the place I am now.
Thomas is one of many mentors, follow the link to hear more from our mentoring team>