Does your company have a mentoring program? Most companies have some form of program with varying levels of success.

At some places, formal policies for mentoring are established. “Bob, you’ll be mentored by Mary”. At other companies it’s just a strong recommendation but it’s not required. They may tell you to just find someone you respect and ask them to be a mentor.

In most cases, a more experienced person mentors someone younger with less experience.

That generally makes sense. If Mary has worked in her industry for ten years serving in many different roles within the organization, she probably has a lot of knowledge to pass down to the new guy. It makes sense for her to teach him the ins and outs of the organization and any political tips she can clue him in on.

Reversing the Roles

What if we turned the tables on that model? What if the young guy mentored the seasoned professional? Most people would say something like: “What could an inexperienced college graduate teach someone who is more experienced?” You might even ask “Why would we want to enhance these already large egos?”

With any other generation that has ever entered the workforce that would make a lot of sense.. Generation Y is a different story. Generation Y – the Millennials – is the group of people who range in age from their late teens to early thirties. Because of the time period that they grew up, it is are a very unique generation.

The Distinction of Generation Y

Because of when they were born, they weren’t around for when the internet came into being back in the nineties. They don’t remember when the phones were a kitchen wall attachment. The internet and cellular phones have just always been there.

By contrast the Baby Boom generation saw the birth of the internet, its reinvention to web 2.0, and “car phones” which evolved to flip phones and eventually became smart phones.

I know a lot of Baby Boomers who still have flip phones. They don’t want all of those fancy apps, they just want to use it to call people. Although most of them are on the internet, many of them have no interest in Twitter or Facebook.

Because the millennials grew up with this technology, they aren’t intimidated by it. Most never the classical typing classes many baby boomers took in high school. Yet, they can type faster with their two thumbs than an experienced typist can do with both hands.

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