Why Career Navig8r exists

(Do we *really* need another mentoring site?)

It would appear a whole bunch of people have been left out of mentoring.
So, yes is the short answer to that☝️☝️

All over LinkedIn or Instagram you’ll see people pretending to be mentors, coaches or gurus of one kind or another. But…did you notice – they all appear to be targeting solopreneurs, freelancers or any other name you can think of for someone who wants to run their own business?

What if that’s not you. What if you don’t want to create a one-person empire? What if your motivation isn’t 10K months or 6-figure years being a creative powerhouse, or yet another coach of coaches.

NB – Look closely, and you’ll see some of them have never actually done the thing they want to mentor you in!

What if you love your job and just want to be better at it? What if you love your industry and the freedom of not being an entrepreneur – if you don’t want the hassle of worrying about where your next pay cheque is coming from, or being responsible for other people’s mortgages – or stressing about HMRC and PAYE?
(BTW – If you don’t know what those two things are – you might just be who we’re talking to)

Career Navig8r exists exactly because not everyone wants to run their own business.
Not everyone wants to be the ‘next big thing in freelancing’
But everyone should have access to a mentor!

Let’s talk football – or soccer if you prefer.

Does everyone want to be Alex Ferguson? Is everyone cut out to be Alex Ferguson…? No to both.
Some people will thrive with all that responsibility – at one of the biggest clubs in world football. Some people could think of nothing worse than having all that responsibility.

Remember Matt Le Tissier? Dedicated one club man. Southampton was his club, and that’s where he played out his whole career. Some people just want to do what they’re comfortable doing. There was very little remarkable about Matt Le Tissier’s career. He played for one club, his professional career was 16 years long. He never won any of the major honours available to professional footballers.

Pretty unremarkable then. There must be a reason he’s included in this tale, mustn’t there?

Another short answer – and another YES!

You see, he’s the perfect person for this particular parable. There is one aspect of his abilities that is anything BUT unremarkable. Taking penalties (or penalty kicks, if you prefer)

In his 16-year professional career he ambled up (if you know you know) to the penalty spot 48 times.
He scored from 47. That’s a frankly staggering success ratio of 97.9%.
In case you missed it.

He scored FOURTY SEVEN out of FOURTY EIGHT penalties in his professional career.

Lovely story, but where’s the relevance (although, you’ve probably got it already)?
We’re providing mentors for the Matt le Tissier alike.
If you don’t want to be a manager of a football team but DO want to be REALLY good at penalties. You’d want coaching from Matt Le Tissier. Wouldn’t you?
Not from your Uncle Tony, who once scored a penalty on Hackney Marshes (although he’s lucky it wasn’t Belmarsh). He might be loud and brash about his (one) penalty taking achievement.
But he’s no 47/48 Matt Le Tissier is he.


Real mentoring for real people who want to be good at the thing they love!

The platform could have been called that ⬆️ ⬆️ but imagine the length of the domain name!
So, Career Navig8r it became. It wasn’t the first name choice, but it was the one that stuck.
The logic is the platform hooks up mentees with mentors who can help them ‘navigate’
through their careers, while avoiding roadblocks and pitfalls.
A bit like Sat Nav – the idea is to help people find the quickest and most direct to their goal.
(That football reference was unintentional.)
It’s also why mentors are called Navig8rs 😊

We find mentors in role specific & job specific areas, so they are familiar with the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the industry. Each has its own and working with a mentor who knows that industry and all its little quirks is the best way to get through them. They’ve been there, they’ve seen it, they’ve done it and they are wearing the T-Shirt to prove it. (ooh, branded merchandise idea)

Isn’t it about time someone catered for the majority of the population. The number who don’t want to run their own business. The 100s of 1000s of people who want to have a job, and do it to the best of their ability so that they can progress up the career ladder?
We think so – we think everyone should have the ability to become better at their job and to climb the ladder of success. Think, Jack & the Beanstalk, only much easier, and no giant monster at the top, and an experienced guiding hand along your way.

What level/type of mentees do you cater for?

Pretty much any mentee of any level in any industry 😊
We made the decision to start with the IT industry, because it’s vast and has many layers and levels, which means we can help a lot of people straight away.
Eventually we’ll have mentors (or Navig8rs, if you prefer) in every industry and at every seniority level, so it won’t matter why you’re looking for a mentor, we’ll have one available.
Our focus will always be on job specific mentoring. We certainly won’t join the throng of people who only cater to high paying mentees who want to conquer the world – one 10K month at a time.
If you’ve got an interview for a new job and would like some expert guidance
or if you’ve got a new job, and want some help getting off to a flying start
or, if you LOVE your job but have one or two sticky bits you need a hand with. That’s exactly who we will always cater for.

Remember – we’re here to help you take better penalties like Matt, not to rule the world, like Alex.

What level/type of mentors do you want?

At the risk of sounding repetitive. Pretty much any mentor of any level in any industry (sorry 😊)

For too long there has been the idea that you had to be a super high achiever to be a mentor (although as mentioned – that’s not always the case in reality)
Career Navig8r is built for anyone who wants to mentor. You just need to have done something to a decent standard – and be able to teach others how and why you did it.
Stand by for EVEN MORE repetition.
We made the decision to start with the IT industry, because it’s vast and has many layers and levels, which means we can help a lot of people straight away. It’s also an industry that’s been affected by a lot of layoffs and redundancies recently. Some of those folks will be really valuable mentors (or Navig8rs, you know the routine) and will have vast amounts of recent and relevant knowledge they can pass on to the people coming up behind them!
Eventually, we’ll have Navig8rs in all industries at all levels! If you’re looking to be a mentor in any field, Career Navig8r will be the place to be.

As long as you’ve done something to a decent level (you don’t have to be Matt Le Tissier standard) and can help people understand the pitfalls and perils awaiting them in their career progression – you can be a mentor.
This way, you get to talk about the things you know really well, and the things you’ve done that made you successful. You won’t need to talk to people about things that are outside your area of expertise.

If you are or were an accountant – mentor in that ✅
If you are or were a civil engineer – mentor in that ✅
If you are or were a C++ developer – mentor in that ✅

Still working – you can mentor. Made redundant – you can mentor.
Retired and still keen to engage your brain – you can mentor.

We want to make it easier and more accessible for people to share their hard-earned knowledge – and get paid for doing it. It’s entirely possible that you could make a decent living from mentoring with Career Navig8r.

Yes – But HOW. Why – what was the push?

The progenitor of Career Navig8r is Kenneth Glynn. He had seen first-hand how his dad had lost his motivation and zest for life once he retired. Then, when his sister gave up her career to raise children – he saw the same thing. Once proud, loud motivated and hungry people who became less engaged, and less motivated as they spent longer out of work and less time engaging their brains.

(Probably on the loo, or in the shower, as these things tend to happen) Ken had envisaged a mentoring system by professional people, for other professional people who wanted to excel in their career – and not necessarily go off and conquer the world and start an Alex Ferguson type dynasty.

A mentoring platform – that allows mentees to meet mentors, arrange meetings and hold meetings was conceived. A few months and a lot of hard work (and money) later it was born!

Tl;dr
A mentoring platform where mentees and mentors can meet – make appointments – hold meetings.
A mentoring platform where people who have done well can share their lessons with people who want to do well. In the same industry.