Everyone is unique, and special, but what they are entitled to is not admiration. What we are entitled to, each of us, is respect in its’ most basic form. Respect for one another as fellow human beings. Admiration, acclaim; this is something that must be earned. Respect should be a birthright.

Now that I am mentoring 2 interns for the first time, that’s what I told them – anything I ask you to do, it may seem menial, but it has to be done and if someone else weren’t doing it, I would. I think it is a good standard. I think I made a good apprentice to a local fashion designer because of the fact that I grew up in an artisan environment. So what that I was almost thirty and wasn’t paid enough to have a car so I stood out in the cold all winter waiting for the bus? I learned skills on her cutting room floor that led to a salaried job in a creative industry related to both my university education as well as my appreniceship. And this is in a state that hardly has any industry, much less a creative industry. Humility will pay off. Or so I believe.

Now I need to learn how to really mentor, to really teach. Reading these posts, I am encouraged to toughen up, to raise standards, and demand they earn my trust in their ability to work solo. They certainly have not done so as of yet. It is certainly more work to take on an intern than it would seem. I have been doing their work over, thinking, what am I doing? shouldn’t they be doing it over? oh yeah, it needs to be done right, Right Now. It’s time to set some goals based on this post and the subsequent comments. Thank you for making me think.

One way to do that is to assign menial tasks and see how well they handle details. Those who cannot need to continue learning that part (humility), while those who can might move on to something more challenging. It’s a gatekeeping technique that reveals *character* –not skills– and allows only the worthy into the inner sanctum; everyone else just complains about their bad experience. A student who insists on pushing their own ideas is perhaps looking *only* for the resume padding.

I just wanted to thank everyone for such interesting and enlightening comments.

This is one of the few sites where I’ve witnessed such thoughtful and meaningful discussions – it usually costs me quite a bit in StarBUCKS coffee with friends to get a meaningful conversation going.

Everyone’s comments have really helped me continue to learn and evolve in respect to how I wish to manage my education presently as a student and in the future as a mentor.

Eric H said: Learning/teaching is a shared experience which may yield only in proportion to what both bring to the table.

I agree with yours and Jin’s assessment of trading value for value. Another nuance that’s easily overlooked in this relationship dynamic, though, is the word: protege, meaning “protected”. The student learns in a protected and controlled environment with clear goals toward advancement.

The goal of successful mentor/protege relationships is handing off either the business or the trade. In other words, enabling the protege to eventually compete with or surpass the mentor. This is what I mean about a special person in my earlier comment. It’s very humbling to be a mentor because you have to serve the protege. Many aren’t easily suited to these conditions of the relationship the first dozen times they try.

This person will likely have a fashion/apparel degree but will only spend part of their time working on design related tasks. We’re small, so her responsibilities would run the gamut of small apparel company jobs. From answering phones, to shipping and receiving, to managing part of our supply chain, to marker making, etc, etc, etc. We would teach her how we create designs and make patterns – though we wouldn’t likely get into that until she had proven themselves a capable, competent and diligent worker.

For those of you that have either hired or been hired in this sort of capacity – what was the salary range?

I totally agree that many mentors/intern situations keep the intern working on parts of the whole and never the “whole” so they won’t become competitors. That has more to do with a person’s understanding of generosity and selflessness. My friend who is an excellent handbag pattern maker had the opportunity to work at a high end label with European trained patternmakers. They would never tell or her show her a thing as teacher to student. She learned her craft by watching and applying what she saw them doing in her work and replacing their process with her limited school education. At the end of 5 years she became top notch at what she does. They gave her all the menial work or the things they hated to do for themselves.

In my internships, I found the boss always gave me the work they didn’t do well and wished a subcontractor could do for them which is ridiculous to give to an intern! So I had to learn on many things I didn’t have the training for. Years later I became very good at them. I had the chance to make so many mistakes and solve so many problems that it helped me become very good at that and now people pay me to do that for them.

No intern is going be taught how to start their own business while on an internship. They only get to be exposed to a level of business or craftmanship they have not attained yet and can learn through staying in that environment. Being open minded, highly observant and thick skinned is a recipe for success.

Mentorship relationships are hierarchical.
Are we ready to be mentored?
Are we ready to work in roles where we may feel vulnerable?

I think, that in the manner in which “we” inculcate the young, particularly lately, teaching them they’re “unique” -snowflakes are all unique but they’re still all snowflakes, or maybe just flakes – that they don’t need to really do anything to deserve admiration. They’re worthy of it simply by virtue of their existence. The increasingly common designer as rock-star mentality exacerbates the complex. Their self-esteem knows no bounds; recent studies demonstrate that self confidence is at an all time high while competence has decreased. So no, I don’t think that many are ready to be mentored. Imbued with over the top self confidence, the very idea of being placed in a vulnerable role is an anathema. They feel entitled to a relationship of equals.

I think part of the problem is that the confidence one gains through institutionalized instruction is misplaced. Simply by virtue of having paid good money, coupled with successful marketing by aforementioned institutions, matriculation is seen as sufficient value and competence. One becomes entitled; position attained, drudge work is beneath them.

I don’t deny there are people who use the menial labor of others but I don’t think they deserve being described as mentors either. Vote with your feet if it’s not going anywhere. That said, there’s more to it, the humility and vulnerability Carmel mentions. I can say for certainty that I watch how people accomplish menial tasks. Do they do the dirty job properly, quickly and carefully? If not the first time, what of the second and third times? How long will they do the job until they do it correctly? Pattern making is much like this. Some of the work is not fun. It’s tiresome and boring but it must be done well. If a person cannot sweep the floor repeatedly -with integrity- my estimation of their capacity plummets. Why would I throw further investment of my time at them? I’ll have them sweep the floor repeatedly until they’ve learned it must be done well. One is ready to progress once they no longer need to be monitored. After which, they’ll still need to sweep, otherwise, I’ll have to do it myself (theoretically speaking of course, sweeping is a rare event around here). If you cannot trust one to perform menial tasks properly without oversight, you cannot teach them that which they don’t have within themselves. It’s a lot of work if you constantly have to check up on people, more so with patterns than sweeping floors. There is no trust. If I don’t trust you, I’m not going to give you anything.

I wish I could claim to have been so wise that I always knew this but no, I had to learn this the hard way. I was one who thought floor sweeping (literally) was beneath me. I was aghast, insulted. I sulked. I made economic arguments; a sanitation worker earned a lot less than I did; my time should have been spent more cost effectively. My early attitude created a deficit in my account balance. I had to sweep a whole lot of floors for a long time to dig myself out. It wasn’t until I learned to do it well, with joy rather than resignation that I was trusted to do something truly useful. I’m just glad I learned this lesson quickly.

There are certain people out there I’d love to teach. They are crude unfinished talents with tremendous potential. Those I’d teach more readily. I want to give them a few tools, turn them loose and see what they do with it. I don’t want them to sweep my floors; their capacity excites me, I want to see them take these tools and transcend me, be better than I was at their age. Given a head start, I want to see how far they’ll go, opportunities I never had. Does it go without saying that they approach every and any task with willingness, humility and integrity?

Reducing the experience of what it takes to be successful with a mentor into simplest terms, students must understand their mentors want skill progeny, not skill protégés. Through you, we live on.

Don’t think I’m not counting on it. I don’t expect my efforts to bear fruition for another twenty years. Right now, I’m teaching a lot of teachers (you). It won’t hit critical mass until this is inculcated to a second and third generation. Revolutionary doesn’t interest me. Ubiquity does.