The Value of Mentorship
Each summer, The AD Club hosts its prestigious summer internship program, offering a select group of undergrads from across the nation the opportunity to intern at some of the leading media and advertising companies in New York City. Interns are granted access to mentors – experienced industry professionals – to guide them through the summer, sharing advice for starting our in their careers.
Mentor Diana Zaccardi, VP Supply Chain Management at Verizon Wireless, offers some words of wisdom to these youngsters. Follow Diana on Twitter @yektadi.
What is the value of mentorship in the advertising industry?
I think it is critical to have a mentor. A mentor should be someone that knows you well enough to guide and coach you through your professional journey. I don’t recommend it be someone that you work for currently or even a friend. It has to be someone you have worked with that knows strengths and weaknesses and can effectively coach you. I have several mentors that I lean on. They help me in a variety of ways. They provide an unbiased point of view when trying to solve a difficult problem. Mentors can assist in clearing roadblocks through their own networks. They also are helpful in providing career counseling. I have found them to be extremely valuable and an absolute must!
What are the best pieces of professional advice that you carry with you day to day?
Love what you do—it brings passion to your work, motivates you and above all, keeps you happy!
- Act with Integrity at all times
- Make time for you, your family, and work…in that order.
- Stay curious- ask questions so you keep learning throughout your career
- Never be afraid to try- take risks
- It’s okay to make mistakes, that’s how you learn
- Appreciate the people that help you and let them know so!
- Focus on your work and do your best, the reward always follows
- Be a good team player to your colleagues
- Details matter, so pay attention to them
These guidelines have changed throughout my career as I have grown. They have worked to help me be successful.
It is an opportunity for neophytes to be part of a prestigious summer internship program, and would experience the techniques shared by one of the leading media and advertising companies in the United States, particularly in New York City. The interns are very lucky to encounter the professional mentors to guide them and to teach them the unique strategies in advertising.
Since advertising was discussed on your post, I would like to share thoughts I learned from my course, wherein, some analyst view commercial advertising as a type of poetic game (Jahannesen, Valde, & Whedbee, 2008). This poetic game is a technique that used to invite consumers to participate in a recreational, feel-good, emotional, and satisfying experience. From this point of view, do you agree with this idea?
I agree that a mentor is significant to an intern. A mentor helps an intern travel the journey of his career smoothly. At first, I thought that if you knew the mentor personally, the better you will become a good intern. However, through the opening of your ideas and recommendations about the characteristics of a mentor, my mind and heart were entirely opened and amazed. You are indeed right that a good mentor possessed the expertise to be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a person or intern in particular. Yes, mentors are coaches; they guide, assist, and counsel. They are valuable and of great necessity.
I would really apply all your professional advice to be passionate on my work because I believed that to show passion in everything I do makes me feel great and I would flourish always. Now, I am confident to say that it is okay to be mistaken, and I would do my best to focus to the things I love to do, and I cannot wait to change for the better as I grow as a person who hunger for success.
You really motivate me! Thank you for the words of wisdom you shared, I am one of those youngsters who really appreciate the significance of mentorship, and I strongly agree that mentorship has a great value in the advertising industry.
Jahannesen, R. L., Valde, K. S., & Whedbee, K. E. (2008). Ethics in Human Communication
(6th Edition ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press Inc.
Zaccardi, D. (2014, June 25). The Value of Mentorship. Retrieved from
https://adclubny.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/the-value-of-mentorship/.