PMI Wants YOU - To be a Mentor!
 
Did you know that PMI Atlanta has a mentoring program?  It is a free program and is rewarding for both mentor and mentee.  I am a benefactor of that program.  I was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor named Catherine Wright. 

For one year, under the PMI Atlanta Mentoring program, Catherine encouraged me as I spent several months looking for work and planning PDD 2008.  She also introduced me to Agile and Scrum. 

I passed my PMP with Catherine's help and support as well.  Our formal mentorship under PMI Atlanta is over but we still keep in touch, and I regard her as one of my most trusted friends. Although I already had project management experience before the match, I am a much better and more confident project manager today as a result of going through the PMI Atlanta Mentoring program. 
 
Be a Mentor!! There are many mentees looking for matches right now.    Here are some reasons to become a mentor:

1. You'll learn. By serving as a mentor, you'll learn from your mentees. They'll have knowledge you don't have, maybe teach you a new job-specific skill, and help you enhance your people-development skills.

2. You'll review and validate what you know and what you've accomplished. Teaching another helps you review and re-frame all you've learned about that subject. You'll realize that you've accomplished much more than you thought.

3. You'll probably feel satisfied, proud, and other energizing emotions. When you have a positive effect on your mentees, expect several positive feelings of pride, satisfaction, happiness, contentment, and excitement along with the enjoyable physiological reactions that go with them.

4. Mentoring could have future personal payoffs. When mentees are successful, they often reward their mentors. Even if this isn't your reason for helping, you could receive grateful thanks, notoriety, jobs, invitations, and other future opportunities to contribute and celebrate.

5. This is a chance to pay back and you'll leave the world better than you found it. It's been said before, and it's still true. Taking the time to reach out to others, share your life's wisdom, and convey your respect for them is probably the least expensive and most powerful way to change the world, one life at a time.

If you would like to be a Mentor please contact Stu Gillespie, Mentoring Chairman, at mentoring@pmiatlanta.org.  For more information about the mentoring program, visit the website at http://www.pmiatlanta.org/article.html?aid=116 .