The importance of Mentoring,
(especially in the yachting industry.)
Mentoring can be very important as a career and life development tool in many shore based professions. Seafaring is in all cases a unique profession, and no more so than in the superyacht sector.
This brings with it it’s equally unique set of challenges that many crew, especially the younger and less experienced ones will struggle to deal with on a daily basis.
Sadly, many of today’s crew are woefully ill-equipped to deal with what they are about to encounter in their first couple of years onboard. Often they enter the industry with an unrealistic perception of what is in store for them.
Many, partly due to their own naivety will struggle to even to find good positions in the first instance. Large yachts generally have a proportion of relatively young and naïve crew that lack not only specific skills but more importantly they lack basic life skills.
Due to the especially challenging nature of the industry, with its many quirks and sometimes non-conventional practices and the 24/7 working / living environment, crew frequently feel it difficult to cope with the place they find themselves in. Often they feel they have nowhere to turn to air their issues and concerns and to get solid meaningful and well-founded advice.
Unlike most employees in the world, you don’t get to go home at night to talk to your friends and family about what’s happening onboard. Regardless, of that even if you could, a thorough understanding of what happens on yachts is needed to help guide any crew member through their challenges in relation to best possible outcome.
Even when things are going well enough, it's prudent to always have goals and to be considering what your next career move will be to help you achieve them. In an ever changing industry it can be difficult to know what are the best choices for you to make to further your career and achieve your goals. Quality mentoring and advice can help you make the best choices to get you where you really want to be.
Mentoring is a critically important function that needs to be carried out especially in your early years, and indeed if you start the process before you even enter the industry you will benefit greatly from informed and impartial advice from a highly experienced industry expert. Having a much greater understanding of what lies ahead of you, makes you better equipped to deal with the multitude of challenges that will come your way.
