The Mentor Effect

What separates career-changing advice from everyday guidance? The difference often lies in both the wisdom itself and the intentions of those sharing it. 

Professor JRod takes a detour from his usual CompTIA certification topics to explore something equally valuable for tech professionals: the transformative power of mentorship and pivotal advice. Drawing from his personal experience, he shares three pieces of guidance that fundamentally changed his professional approach. First, the unexpected revelation that "IT is part of communications" highlights how technical skills must be paired with clear accountability and transparency. Second, the strategic shift from asking for time off to confidently informing employers preserves professional autonomy while maintaining respect. Third, recognizing when documentation protects your interests creates crucial professional boundaries.

Beyond specific advice, Professor JRod delves into the more nuanced art of distinguishing genuine mentors from those with hidden agendas. True mentors, he explains, prioritize your growth even when delivering difficult feedback, while others merely use mentorship as a vehicle for their own advancement. This discernment becomes crucial as professionals navigate increasingly complex workplace dynamics. Perhaps most powerfully, he emphasizes the responsibility of "paying it forward" – using your experiences to help others avoid pitfalls and sleepless nights, creating a cycle of support that strengthens entire professional communities.

Have you received transformative professional advice? Professor J-Rod invites listeners to share their stories at professorjrod@gmail.com, continuing the conversation about how mentorship shapes our professional journeys. Join the discussion about finding those rare individuals who truly look out for your best interests and learning to become that person for others.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Technology Tap
• 1:29 Three Best Pieces of Advice
• 7:32 The Importance of Good Mentorship
• 9:45 Giving Back as a Mentor
• 13:22 Finding People Who Help You
• 15:31 Share Your Stories and Experiences

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 2: 0:26

Hi and welcome to Technology Tap. I'm Professor J-Rod. In today's episode, we're going to talk about mentors and what's the best advice you've been given. Let's get into it. Hey, welcome to Technology Tap. I'm Professor J-Rod. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Professor J-Rod. I'm a professor of cybersecurity and I like helping students pass the CompTIA A+, network+ and Security Plus exams, and usually this is what this podcast is about. But every now and then I like to dip into other topics, and today we're going to dip into advice that you've given and mentorship.

Speaker 2: 1:22

So what are the best pieces of advice you've gotten? I've gotten three. I've gotten a lot, but I'll talk about three. The first one was many, many years ago, when one of my first jobs that I've, corporate jobs that I've ever had, you know, working in an office nine to five, right Monday to Friday, and that was and you might find this strange and that was and you might find this strange that IT is part of communications, right? And that means you have to be a good communicator to work in IT. And you need to be a good communicator to work in anything, I feel, but you need to be especially need to be a good communicator in IT. So what do I mean by that? Well, you need to tell people that something worked or something didn't work right. You need to tell something that, oh, I'm going to do this, or I've tried that, or I'm going to do this later, or I haven't gotten into that, like just normal basic communications, especially in IT, because it could hurt you in the end.

Speaker 2: 2:26

And you know, I used to work with this company and this one gentleman older gentleman told me that he says you know, communication, it is part of communications and you have to be a good communicator. You have to know how to write a memo this is back when they didn't have emails, right. You have to learn how to pick up the phone and call somebody and say, hey, you know this is what I did, this is, you know, this is what's happening. You have to learn how to take accountability, because nobody in IT likes somebody who says I didn't do that when everybody knows that you did it right. So it's good to you know to communicate something that didn't work right, you tried it a bunch of times say, oh look, I tried it, I tried it, I don't know what's wrong, and then maybe somebody else out there knows how to fix it or can guide you into getting it fixed.

Speaker 2: 3:24

That used to happen to me a lot, especially when I was younger, you know, 19, 20 years old. 21 years old I don't know anything about working in an office what do I know about that but it took me, you know, a couple of years to understand that concept and very grateful for that advice. Did get yelled at a lot, but still grateful for that advice. Did get yelled at a lot, but still grateful for that advice. And I like to tell my students you know that, that you know that stuff, you know that that happens, in that it's part of communications. I like to tell my students all my students know that. I like to tell them that the other advice that I've gotten was I had something happen to me where I was promised a promotion and I didn't get it.

Speaker 2: 4:11

And so the person who spent the year telling me that I'm going to get the promotion then told me I wasn't getting the promotion, wanted me to write an email saying that I didn't want the promotion. Wanted me to write an email saying that I didn't want the promotion. So I reached out to a mentor of mine, a really good guy. He told me don't write that email. He said what could happen later on is if you ever complain like, oh, this place never gives me any leadership opportunities, they can turn around and say, oh, but I gave you this opportunity. But look, you sent me an email saying that you didn't want it. So he told me do not send the email. And I did not. And the person contacted me a couple of times asking me to send it and I said, yeah, I'm going to send it, but I never did because I took his advice right. I didn't want. You know that. You know.

Speaker 2: 5:05

Later on down the line, they say, oh, you don't want to do anything, you just, you know, you just want to coast. No, I wanted them to know that that I was into it, I really wanted the position. So I didn't into it. I really wanted the position. Um, so I, I didn't sign it and the last thing that I did piece of advice that I have is so if you really, really, really and this is, you know again, this is just, it's not all, might not be all it related this will work in any function. And this was by really good friend of mine, another guy who I consider a mentor, a lot of the stuff that he has taught me the years that I worked with him. I say it in the class and he'll probably be happy that I do.

Speaker 2: 5:49

That Is if you want a day off. And if you really need a day off, don't ask, just take the day off. Just tell them I'm going to take the day off. You know you do the right thing. Don't do the no call, no show, but just tell them I'm taking the day off Wednesday. You don't tell them. Can I ask can I have the day off on Wednesday? Because he told me and I'll never forget he told me then you're giving them the option to tell you no when you say, hey, can I have the day off on Wednesday. And then he said you know, when you do that, it opens up for them to tell you no. And then what are you going to do, right? So you just tell them hey, I'm taking the day off.

Speaker 2: 6:33

When I did my dissertation defense was on a Tuesday and I just wrote I'm not. You wrote I won't be coming in on Tuesday. I'm doing my dissertation defense. They didn't ask if I could take Tuesday off, because what if they told me no, right? So I just said I'm not coming in on Tuesday and the class that I had, even though the class was in the afternoon and dissertation was in the morning, I wanted to take the day off because I knew if I didn't pass the defense yeah it was I was going to be so broken, but if I passed, I wanted to celebrate, right. So, um, that's, that's, um, one of the things that. So I decided to go that route. So, but let's talk about mentorship first.

Speaker 2: 7:32

To me, I think it's very important to have mentor, not just one mentor, but mentors with an S. But you have to have, you have to find a mentor that is looking out for you. Right, I've had. I have a couple of mentors now, pretty good ones. But I have mentors in the past of people who I thought were my mentor and you know, then they end up not looking, not really looking out for you. They end up looking out for themselves. And those are people who you have to um, cut right Once you realize that you were you know you're supposedly mentor doesn't really want to look out for you. Uh, you know you. You just have to cut them off. If you can't cut them off from your life for whatever reason, what I do is I just ignore any advice that they give me because the trust has gone. But if you have truly good mentors, you listen to what they say.

Speaker 2: 8:38

I'm very, very fortunate to have one really, really good mentor, um, and he can, he, I can go to him and and talk to him about anything. And you know what? Sometimes he he yells at me and says like, like, why did you do that? I wouldn't have done it that way, you know. And he explains to me why. And again, he's doing it because he cares, right, and there's people that you know they have their own agenda, they have their own thing that they want to do, and you're part of that clog that needs that. They need to make the machine, the machine work for them. So they pretended to be your mentor and then they're not. So it's very, very important to not only be a uh, have a mentor, but be a mentor too. Right, because you know there's part of being a mentor is. Is sharing your experiences with other people right, which is something that I love to do. I love sharing my experience with anybody who would listen.

Speaker 2: 9:54

I had a student once that he got a ticket. It was like a very particular ticket, you know, tracking ticket and he had said that he couldn't. You know. He said, oh, can I talk to you after class? And I talked to him after class and he said, oh, I'm not going to be in here tomorrow. I got this ticket. That's driving me crazy, I can't sleep. And I said, well, what's the ticket about? And he explained to me what the ticket was.

Speaker 2: 10:23

And I had the exact same issue, like years back, and I told him exactly what to do. And and he went to court the next day. Text me say oh yeah, everything is fine. Wow, he said that that ticket wouldn't let him sleep for days. You know, as you know, as he had to go in to court, like the closer the day went, the lesser he slept. He thought he was going to be in big trouble. I'm like, no, no, this is a simple thing. Do this, this, this and this. And he did it. And he was fine. And he's like, wow, I wish I would have talked to you before. I said but you see, this is why sometimes you don't want to tell people your problems. Who's been through that exact same issue? And they can help you and you don't have to go through sleepless nights right Wondering, you know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 11:26

You know if you have that, you know that one mentor, who or somebody there who looks out for you, yeah, I love being a mentor. I like sharing the wealth. You know you have to give back. You know, as a Hispanic male, I feel an obligation to give back to the community, to my community and to you know, the students, you know, because I feel like it's an obligation for me. I've had people help me throughout my years and I feel like I have to give back. I want everybody to succeed. I don't, you know, I don't want to be the one that succeeds and then I don't care about anybody else. That's very selfish. I've had people help me throughout my years of coming up and I feel like it's an obligation for me to help other people.

Speaker 2: 12:19

The next generation of people who want to do IT, you know, want to do CompTIA, want to do their doctorate, their graduate degrees, and you know I feel like it's, you know, I have to help them Hoping, and I do tell my students or people that I mentor, you know. Now you have to help other people, right? So that's that comes to the hard part, right? Helping other people do the same thing that you, that you do, right Cause that's important. We have to help each other, especially in this, this weird climate that we're going through here in the United States. So it's important to network, it's important to find people who would help you, people who would give you good, solid advice, people who don't have agendas, you know, people who just generally, generally want to help you, because there's people that are.

Speaker 2: 13:19

Believe it or not, I used to be very cynical, but I realized that there's actually people out there who really, really want to help you and you know it's okay, it's okay to let them help you, it's okay, it's not that bad. You'll find people that don't, you know, say they want to help you and then they, you know they have their own thing and those are the people that you, you want to weed out of your life. Sometimes you can't. Um, you know there might be somebody in your family, there might be somebody who you work with, who you, you know, no longer consider them a mentor and you still, you still have to talk to them, and that's okay, but you just don't need to take their advice. Be cordial, be respectful, but you don't have to go to them saying I got a problem. I want to bounce off you. No, that doesn't need to happen. Find good mentors. You need to find good, solid mentors, people who will help you, and you should be fine if you do that.

Speaker 2: 14:24

So, yeah, so if you have any advice that you picked up along your life doesn't have to be IT related, though it could Send me email, though it could send me an email professorjrod at gmailcom that's P-R-O-F-E-S-S-O-R-J-R-O-D at gmailcom and let me know, like, what kind of advice you have. Or, if you have a mentor and you know, what has that mentor done for you? You know one or two things. Hopefully I get a couple of responses.

Speaker 2: 14:59

If I do, you know, it would be nice to read them. I would love to read them. Of course, if you give me permission, I won't say any names, but I think it's important that, as a community, we share what we know right and share where we've gone wrong and where has life turned left and those people who have gotten out of their way to help you get on the right path, because life ain't easy, guys. You know, when you're a kid you want to be an adult, but when you're an adult you want to be a kid, because life is easier when you're a kid, when I see these kids say I can't wait to be a grown-up and I'm like really, no, you don't.

Speaker 2: 15:48

It's tough and you need to find those people who have your best interests at heart and will look out for you, and people who you can talk to, you and people who you can talk to. That's going to be it for today. Thank you everyone. If you can send me an email at ProfessorJRodcom, we really appreciate it. Until next time you.