NAVAIR recently launched a quick, new method to help develop its employees’ careers: speed mentoring.

The NAVAIR Career Development Office and the Women’s Advisory Group Mentoring Sub-Team hosted the command’s first speed mentoring event June 18 to match potential mentors with mentees and showcase the resources employees have to make the most of their careers.

The event consisted of four 50-minute mentoring sessions, with each mentee having nine-minute conversations with five mentors. Approximately 70 mentors and mentees participated, according to the mentoring program manager, Donna Belcher.

Employees were asked to come prepared with specific questions for the mentors, with the goal of focusing their attention on key areas and pressing needs and enhancing their networking opportunities.

Several senior NAVAIR officials, including Gary Kurtz, NAVAIR assistant commander, Corporate Operations and Total Force, served as mentors for the event, giving employees access to leaders with whom they would not normally interact.

“This is about you today,” Kurtz told mentees. “We are helping facilitate your development. Together, we are creating a culture that fosters learning.”

Traditional mentoring is a developmental relationship that partners an experienced person (mentor) with a less experienced person (mentee). By sharing the knowledge and insights learned through years of experience, mentors offer their mentees the insight and guidance to do their jobs more effectively and/or to progress in their careers.

Mentoring relationships can be short or long term, depending on the mentee’s goals, and involve a time commitment, according to Belcher. Speed mentoring is a fast-paced, time-efficient method to obtain advice and guidance from several mentors in a short period of time. During speed mentoring, employees have multiple short conversations and the opportunity to hear a variety of perspectives.

“Speed mentoring serves as a great opportunity to seek advice and guidance from a variety of mentors. It is also good practice for those who are looking for a mentor but are not comfortable with talking with someone they don’t know for a long period of time,” Belcher said. “If you can get meaningful advice in a nine-minute conversation, imagine what you could accomplish in regularly scheduled meetings with a mentor.”

Both mentors and mentees said they learned valuable lessons at the event.

Candy Chesser, who volunteered as a mentor, said the event was a great opportunity to interact with NAVAIR’s next generation. “I felt that I gained as much as the mentees,” she said. “It was nice to be exposed to so much positive energy.”

For Rear Adm. (sel) CJ Jaynes, the event gave her an opportunity to provide advice to people she usually does not see or had not met before.

“At the end of the day, I hope I was able to provide a new perspective or a different approach for someone to consider as they navigate through the passageways of NAVAIR,” she said. “Everyone has something to offer, and mentoring is one way to give of yourself to the command.”

Mentees said the career advice they received was beneficial.

“I wound up making a connection with everyone. The conversations were so genuine, and each person gave good advice,” said Engineer Cassaundra Brown.

Engineering Technician Yolanda Jackson agreed. “All of the mentors provided solid advice and even extended themselves by offering additional time if I needed it,” she said. &l