In Working World, I argue that the terminology of “mentor” and “protege” is archaic and not up-to-speed with my generation, the younger generation, the “on-demand” generation. I even go so far as to suggest that the whole idea of a mentor taking a protege under his or her wing is dead.
So it’s ironic that I’ve found myself, in the presentations Sherry and I have been giving in connection with Working World, more or less reversing course and admitting that I have indeed benefited from the counsel of mentors throughout my career (Sherry being a prime one) and thus I am, in fact, a protege. I still firmly believe that the terminology of “mentor-protege relationship” is outdated and stuffy and you won’t find me readily throwing around these terms. But I’ve found that once you get past any generational or personal bias against the terms, you’ll find that mentors are in no way dead for the on-demand generation.
It’s also kind of ironic then, given my aversion to these terms, that for the past seven years, I’ve been driving a Mazda Protege. It might also be ironic (it was certainly dismaying and the main reason blogging for me has been nonexistent in the past several days), since I have argued that the protege is dead only to realize that the protege is really alive, that my trusty Protege is now in fact dead. I know this is all a bit of stretch, but I wanted to be able to eulogize my car and so needed a way to relate it to careers in international affairs. It’s a pretty good effort, I think.
The Protege and I were in an accident on Sunday on the way home from Thanksgiving. Nothing too serious, just a hard rear-ender really. Everyone was fine and at first glance at the damage on the exterior, I figured the Protege would pull through just fine. Turns out the damage underneath was a bit more extensive than anyone imagined, repair costs began to exceed Kelly Blue Book values, and the Protege is no more.
It was a great car. The Protege stuck with me through the best and worst—through long, stinky road trips in college, through my time abroad while it waited patiently in my parents’ driveway, through the series of cavernous potholes that DC calls roads.
RIP, trusty green Protege. I hope I was a worthy Mentor for you.
Too bad about the Protege, but in my mind, you’ll always drive a t-cel.
I’d say the mentor/protege roles have not changed as significantly as you’d say, only the percentage of positions that require it. It’s more commonplace now for people to strike out on their own, trying to find a way to succeed doing what they want to do (i.e. making a career out of international experiences), rather than picking an occupation and fitting themselves into its confines. I’d argue that over the last generation a majority of white collar jobs, not to mention dot com and entrepreneurial ventures, have begun to place unprecedented value on innovation and thinking outside traditional job titles and roles.
There are areas though that have been less affected by this shift. It persists in any field that relies on craftsmanship or acquired skills. In the past there were proportionally far more tradesman than businessmen. Personally I’ve found that medicine, requiring both scientific knowledge and an understanding of how to apply it, lends itself to taking these roles. I would argue that a majority of physicians would say that they found themselves gravitating toward a particular mentor and taking ownership of similar practice styles based on those interactions.