Everyone needs a mentor: Dante had Virgil, Edmund Hillary had a Nepalese Sherpa named Tenzing Norgay, and I had Don, two years my senior in the Justice Department’s Civil Division. Three thousand miles from home, in my first job following a clerkship, Don took me under his wing and gave me a primer on the people I’d be working with. He also gave me a formula he said would help me find my place in any organization: 1. In your first year, learn how to do your job; 2. in your second year, do the best job you can do; and 3. in your third year, do the job that only you can do.
A good mentor can help with that first step and help you learn how to do the job. Our firm assigns associates to act as mentors, people who, like my friend Don, have a few years’ experience, but remember what it feels like to be a fresh face in a crowd of strangers.
