Guided by Mentorship: Spectroscopy Experts Reflect on Career-Defining Mentorship Moments

Spectroscopy recently asked three analytical scientists in the industry and in academia to share how mentorship has impacted their careers.

Mentors play a vital role in shaping an individual’s career, and many companies have mentoring and sponsorship programs to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals. These programs aim to improve representation of underrepresented groups in leadership positions. For example, a 2022 Gallup Center on Black Voices study involving over 8000 working adults found that mentors and sponsors significantly impact the employee experience (1). Building talent requires a supportive community that fosters both organizational and personal growth, a principle increasingly recognized within the spectroscopic community.

Recognizing the importance of mentorship, many professional societies—including The Coblentz Society, the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the American Chemical Society, and the Royal Chemistry Society—actively create opportunities for analytical chemists to find and connect with mentors (2). To explore the real-world impact of these relationships, the editors of Spectroscopy spoke with prominent figures in the field. Michael S. Bradley, who is part of Spectroscopy’s Editorial Advisory Board and retired from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Ellen Miseo of Miseo Consulting, and Anita Mahadevan-Jansen of Vanderbilt University shared their insights on how mentorship influenced their careers at various stages.

Who is a mentor that has impacted your career? How did you meet them, and what made them a great mentor?

Miseo: The first one I can think about is when I was in graduate school, and I went to a Pittcon long time ago, and I heard Jeanette Grasselli Brown talk; in fact, she was talking about practical spectroscopy. The immediate thought I had was that’s the person I want to be like. She knew my research advisor. So, I did get to talk to her infrequently and periodically got a little bit of advice from her.

I got lucky in that there was somebody there who we hit it off, and she was willing to mentor me. I worked with somebody who gave me an enormous amount of advice as to how to make my career go forward, but where I really didn’t get a mentor needed one is how to negotiate two-parent working, traveling to conferences, children, how that all works. On the personal side, it’s important for anybody to have a mentor to help them advance their career, a sounding board, somebody can offer advice, somebody you hit it off with things like that. But on the professional side, that’s where the professional societies come in. Going there, you’re going to find somebody who has the same technical goals as you do, and a lot of the smaller professional societies have the attitude of “I want to give back,” and giving back is something that’s important, especially if you hit it off with the right person.

Mahadevan-Jansen: I grew up in India where biomedical engineering didn’t exist. Research really wasn’t a thing either, so I was never exposed to the concept of research growing up or through my undergrad years, either. It really was my first mentor S. B. Patel, who is a professor of physics department chair subsequently in the University of Mumbai, which is where I got my math bachelors and master’s from, who really introduced me to the concept of the field, the discipline of biomedical engineering, and so he helped me figure it all out.

My first champion, probably the biggest one, is my mother. She was a single mom, and my father died when I was 12. She brought my brother and me up. You know, my brother had already gone on, so it was just her and me, and as a single mom in India, it’s not easy. She wanted me to succeed. Overall, I would say I’ve had a few mentors. It’s all been depending on the phase of my life I am in.

Bradley: There are two kinds of mentors: one type is “in your lane,” someone who works in a similar area. The other is the “orthogonal” mentor, who may have nothing to do with your line of work. I have experienced both and value the input from them. For the sake of these questions, I will focus on an unnamed business mentor. His skill in sales and business in general were his great skills. We also developed a long-term friendship that continued to support my career up until my retirement.

What are pieces of career advice that your mentors gave you that helped grow your career?

Miseo: There was one person I worked with who I would consider to be a professional mentor, who said to me multiple times, “Think out of the box.” Thinking outside the box made me think about other ways of doing things and other ways of getting to a solution that just wasn’t in the normal path, and that’s probably the thing that most impacted my career.

Mahadevan-Jansen: I would say every one of my mentors had one pithy piece of advice. I don’t know that I took it up with all of them, but many of them I ended up developing. One that my first mentor always mentioned was, “Don’t let loyalties limit your ability to grow.” I think what he was referring to is that you join somebody who gives you that first opportunity, and you feel obligated to be there because they took a chance on you. However, there might have been another opportunity there that would have let you grow further, but you might say no because of that loyalty. So he was trying to get me to not get caught up in that. Loyalty is great, and you want to accept that help and support. You want to give them the best, but that does not mean that there are no more opportunities for you to grow. Do what makes you happy. Do what keeps you being yourself.

Bradley: The most important advice I received was to focus on the voice of the customer. The person who told me that showed me how to bring in the input, wrestle with its meaning, and then move it into action. This, given my work in marketing, was a huge skill development.

How do you find a good mentor? Why is it important to have one?

Miseo: I think it’s important for two reasons. On the personal side, it’s important for anybody to have a mentor to help them advance their career. A sounding board, somebody who can offer advice, somebody you hit it off with, things like that. On the professional side, however, analytical chemistry has changed from the large analytical research and development (R&D) groups, where there were 12 people and you could wander down the hallway and ask a question of somebody. That’s all gone, and being able to access somebody who can help you answer the technical questions, get at the right way of doing something, that’s where you need a mentor, and quite frankly, that’s where the professional societies come in.

Mahadevan-Jansen: Being a scientist or being a researcher, especially being an independent career person starting out, it helps to get guidance. Have somebody who can be your cheerleader and guide you through the process. In my life journey, I found having mentors along the way for the different phases of your life is invaluable. I don’t think I could have survived.

Bradley: My mentor was also in marketing, working close by, but (originally) in a different product line. We started eating lunch together and having other non-work interactions that lead to trust and respect, which are essential to the mentoring process. In this case, “finding” the mentor was a matter of a few steps. My company also provided a mentoring program where mentors were assigned after a skills review. This can lead to long-range, stilted mentoring where you can discuss business aspects, but the core impact of mentoring is less. The key piece will be for there to be respect for the skill set of the mentor so the mentee will openly ask questions and extract value.

Often, you need to “outgas” in a safe environment. You need someone to talk to who has related and relatable experience. They can provide the new perspectives or experience to help drive your decisions. This can be very important during job transitions, when you are balancing family concerns with professional ones; it helps to talk with someone who has been there. It is incredibly important that you be open to listening. I had one mentee who felt he did not need any outside insights. Besides wasting our mutual time, it was frustrating to see him begin to fall away professionally.

Where can someone who is new to the industry look to find a mentor?

Miseo: The professional societies are where you go look for a mentor, because going there, you’re going to find somebody who has the same technical goals as you do. The smaller societies are going to have much more focused things that they can point you to. Quite frankly, a lot of the smaller professional societies have the attitude that I want to give back, and giving back is something that’s important. If you hit it off with the right person, you might get both a professional and a personal mentor.

Bradley: Most companies will supply a pool of mentors. Start with someone close to your job function, but also be willing to look away. Informal (orthogonal) mentors can come from anywhere, and you just need to be open to possibilities. These can often specialize in moral or emotional support, which is more important than many new hires want to believe.

References

(1) Den Houter, K.; Maese, E. Mentors and Sponsors Make the Difference. Gallup 2023. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/473999/mentors-sponsors-difference.aspx (accessed 2024-11-12)

(2) Coblentz Mentor Program: Scientists to Scientists. Coblentz Society 2024. https://www.coblentz.org/mentor-program/ (accessed 2024-11-11)