Mentors are Better than Google

Google has made information readily available to everyone. But it isn’t human and doesn’t replace mentorship. Google puts the world’s information at your fingertips, but there are things it can’t do. Some of these things are the difference makers in our careers, success and happiness.

Mentorship does transfer knowledge and closes skill gaps. It might not have the infinite amount of data Google gives us access to, but there are tangible qualities to mentorship Google will never be able to replace.

Google is bloated with opinions.

Google has infinite statistics, blogs, videos, websites, podcasts and viewpoints on every subject imaginable. When you look up an argument on Google, you often find multitudes of answers that conflict and you are left more puzzled than before. Google can be a great resource for quickly looking up quantifiable and concrete facts, but when it comes to subjective opinions you’ll be sifting through reams of digital sheets for hours and still not have the answer you might be looking for.

In contrast to this, a good mentor doesn’t try to find your answer. They give you theirs. You get one opinion. If your mentor is good, then you know you are getting one good opinion which you can weigh against your own. You can also converse with a mentor, poke holes in their opinion and challenge them. Google doesn’t talk back, it just leads you to another search page. 

Google doesn’t hold you accountable.

We’ve all gotten lost in Google. You may have started your search with perfectly good intentions. Possibly, you needed to do some research on Tax Codes for work and what started out as productive Google searching landed you on a page full of funny cat memes you can’t click away from.

lf you didn’t fall into the trap of being distracted on the internet and found all the information you were seeking for your work, Google still doesn’t hold you accountable. It simply feeds you information.

A mentor will challenge you to think differently. They will ask you to question why you are looking for the information and get you to see different ways that it can be used. A mentor also wants updates and wants to see follow through on your ambitions and dreams. A Google search will never do that.

Google can’t understand you as a person.

Technology today is endlessly customizable. Google can be tailored to your age, demographics, location and search history to find the most relevant content to “you.” But, Google doesn’t know you. Google understanding of who you are begins and ends with your search history. It doesn’t understand your personal message, values or career plans. It doesn’t understand that you might need to read an article from 1978 on economics to be inspired to follow a new career path.

A mentor can learn to understand you. A mentor can connect with you on a personal level and spoon feed you information they think you need when you need it.

Google is an incredible tool, but it will never replace a mentor.

Mentor Resources can help any company to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics. 

Reach out to us today for Free Demonstration of our software.