For many young Nigerians in tech, finding the right mentor can be difficult. There are simply too many options. Tech alone has dozens of career paths: software development, product design, data analysis, cybersecurity, digital marketing, product management, and more. Each path has its own ecosystem, language, and leaders.
So when people say, “Find a mentor,” it feels like it’s just a 10-minute task. Who exactly should you approach? Someone senior? Someone famous? Someone working in a big company? Without clarity, mentorship searches quickly turn into guesswork, cold messages, and unanswered emails. In short, a monumental waste of time.
However, this search becomes significantly easier when you define your goals.
Why Defining Your Goals Is the Key
While defining your goals is just the first step in the mentorship journey, it is the most important one. This is because you cannot identify the right mentor until you understand where you want to go. A tour guide is only useful because you know you’re on a tour. You identify where you want to go so you know who can take you there.
Mentorship is directional. You see, a mentor is not just someone with experience; they are someone whose experience aligns with your destination. If you do not know your destination, every potential mentor will seem right. Or wrong.
For example, someone who wants to build a career as a brand designer needs guidance on creative thinking, client management, visual storytelling, and brand strategy. On the other hand, someone who wants to become a broadcast journalist needs mentorship around media ethics, on-air presence, storytelling for mass audiences, and newsroom dynamics. Both are valid careers, but the mentorship required for each is completely different.
This same applies to tech. A front-end developer and a data analyst may both “work in tech,” but their goals, challenges, and career paths differ greatly. Defining your goals helps narrow the field and instantly removes mentors who are simply not relevant to your journey. No offense to them, of course.
Goals Help You Identify the Kind of Mentor You Need
When your goals are clear, your mentorship search becomes more intentional. You stop asking, “Who is successful?” and start asking, “Who has succeeded at what I want to do?”
You look for mentors who have walked the path you are trying to walk, or at least a path close enough to provide meaningful guidance.
Clear goals also help you ask better questions. A vague goal produces vague questions, and vague questions rarely lead to useful mentorship. But when you know what you are working towards, you can ask specific, thoughtful questions that show seriousness and direction. This, in itself, makes potential mentors more willing to engage with you.
In tech, where time is scarce and demand for mentorship is high, clarity becomes a signal of maturity.
Your Mentor Should Be Someone With Aligning Values
Defining your goals is not just about job roles or career milestones. It is also about values. How do you want to work? What kind of impact do you want to make? What principles matter to you?
These questions are crucial because mentorship is not just about skills, it is also about perspective. If a potential mentor’s values clash with yours, the relationship will likely be frustrating rather than helpful. Advice given from a completely different value system may sound logical, but it will be impractical for you.
For instance, someone who prioritizes rapid growth at all costs may struggle to mentor someone who values balance, ethics, and long-term sustainability. Neither person is wrong, but the mismatch will create tension.
When your goals are well-defined, including your values and work principles, you can intentionally seek mentors whose outlook aligns with yours. This alignment makes advice easier to accept, easier to apply, and more effective in the long run.
Why “Closer” Mentors Can Be More Helpful
One common misconception about mentorship is that the best mentor is always the most senior person in the room. In reality, this is not always true, especially in tech.
Someone who is closer to you career-wise may remember the challenges you are currently facing more clearly. They may have navigated the same tools, trends, and hiring processes you are dealing with now. Their advice is often more practical, more current, and easier to apply.
This does not mean senior mentors are not valuable. It simply means that defining your goals helps you decide what kind of mentor you need at each stage of your journey. Sometimes, guidance from someone just a few steps ahead can be more impactful than advice from someone decades ahead.
Conclusion
Finding and working with a mentor is not about luck, it is about clarity. Defining your goals gives structure to your search, direction to your questions, and purpose to the relationship you are trying to build.
During tech week and beyond, as more young Nigerians look to mentorship to navigate their careers, this step cannot be skipped. Before asking who should mentor you, ask yourself where you are going.
When your goals are clear, the right mentors become easier to identify, and the journey becomes far more intentional.
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