Top Five Global Mentoring Platforms To Consider

“A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you.”

– Bob Proctor

Rightly said! Without mentors, there would be no great mathematicians, scientists, economists, or business owners. Behind every successful person, you will find a committed mentor who helped them along their journey. Mentors are important characters in the story of your growth. Statistics state that some of the most successful individuals were supported by some form of mentorship or another. 

As the new normal puts us in an increasingly virtual world of work and play, we have fewer opportunities to network and meet people as we did in the past. Even then it was never easy to identify and approach individuals who may be able to add value to our progress and guide us to success.

But what is stopping you from finding the right mentor online? Yes, you read that right. You can now connect wi​​th mentors online and receive the guidance you need. The imposition of unprecedented worldwide lockdowns has given rise to online mentoring platforms where you can receive the best mentoring from experts globally.

What are Mentoring Platforms? Why Are They Important?

You were lucky if you ever had the chance to receive traditional, in-person mentorship. Someone willing to give you their advice, time, and invest in you, now, can rarely be found. But, with the emergence of online mentoring platforms, that gap is being bridged. Mentoring platforms connect entrepreneurs, advise seekers, employees, students, and other industry newcomers with seasoned industry experts who ‘have been there, done that.’ Through a number of mentoring platforms, you can now find the right mentors for your growth anywhere globally.

These mentoring platforms are significant. You are 40% more likely to achieve your set goals when you share them with your mentor, who keeps fuelling your sense of accountability. Mentoring increases your chances of professional growth. It arms you with the wisdom of a seasoned expert, learning from their mistakes and making you less prone to making your own. It helps you earn the trust and professional respect of those around you.

Factors To Consider When Selecting a Mentoring Platform

What makes a great mentor and what makes an effective mentoring platform are subjective questions. What goes into successful mentoring? Well, you can only find the best mentoring platforms if you know the parameters that make it the best. Here are certain factors to consider to help you in choosing the right online mentoring platform – 

• Comprehensive Participant Profiles
  A thorough profile comprising demographic information such as job title, organization, work history, contact information, passions, and goals forms a robust digital identity. Also having a social media presence that enables some verification of the individuals’ credentials. Quality is key here.

• Strong Mentor Matching System
  A value-packed mentoring platform must have a mentor-mentee matching system that reads user profiles and provides recommendations. A well-organized, versatile mentoring platform must be ready for a diverse range of user preferences.

• Collaborative Tools to Foster Relationships
  A mentor-mentee match is only half the journey. Successful mentoring platforms must support communication after the match takes place. Collaborative tools are essential in a mentoring platform to allow mentees to ask/answer questions, post messages, schedule events, share links and documents, and support personal and professional growth and development activities.

• Constant Growth Monitoring Reports
  Mentoring is all about growth. Online mentoring platforms are unique because, unlike real-life mentoring relationships, accountability can be recorded with referrable graphs and displays. Mentors and mentees can leverage in-built tools with monitoring capabilities for rating, performance management and drive the mentoring sessions successfully with the power of data.

Given the above-mentioned factors, let us dive into the top 5 global mentoring platforms that can offer you a wealth of knowledge and professional guidance.

1. AskMe

Getting tailored advice has never been easier! An on-demand mentoring platform, AskMe allows mentees to connect with mentors in bite-sized 20-minute sessions on the web or via its iOs/Android apps. The platform enables you to access experts globally for one-on-one mentoring sessions via audio or video calls.  Scheduling, call features and payments are all handled securely via the AskMe platform.

This exclusive mentoring platform allows you to connect with experts quickly so that you don’t have to waste time on waiting lists. The platform is designed to meet the needs of anyone looking for professional guidance from highly accomplished professionals, industry experts, and specialists who would otherwise be inaccessible. 

AskMe’s bite-sized sessions bridge the gap between advice-seekers and industry experts at the top of their respective fields such as business leaders, executive coaching, marketing, sales, finance, and many more yet-to-be introduced specialisations. This mentoring platform handpicks its experts and mentors in specific niche areas before onboarding them, allowing advice-seekers the means to obtain customized guidance from any of these specialists on their desired subject matter.

Key Features

• An on-demand platform designed to meet the needs of anyone, anywhere in search of guidance, solutions, mentorship or advice from highly accomplished experts.
• Global directory of vetted and verified best in class industry experts and mentors.
• Over 1000 verified experts and professionals across the globe and multiple time zones and still counting
• In-App Scheduling enabling access to experts 24/7, 365 days
• Ratings and reviews by advice-seekers to provide a measure of service quality
• One-on-one online sessions through audio & video calls integrated within the AskMe platform
• Bookings are available in blocks of 20-minute sessions so you may have as short or as long a conversation as you require
• The platform is web-based and is also available as an App on iOs/Android
• Secure payment gateway (encryption enabled)
• Guaranteed privacy and confidentiality

2. Clarity

A popular marketplace for one-on-one expert consulting, Clarity is another mentoring platform that enables advice seekers to get answers and advice from mentors such as Mark Cuban, who charges $167 per minute. The ratings give advice-seekers insights into the kind of mentorship they seek. 

Key Features

• The platform offers pre-set mentor services. For personalized requests, you will have to get in touch with the mentor for your unique needs. Whether or not your request is considered is subject to their qualification. 
• The call-scheduler allows you to select three dates and time duration according to your schedule and leave a brief teaser for the interaction. 
• The mentor responds within 72 hours before the request expires. 
• The pricing is on a per-minute basis and is dependent upon what the mentors choose to charge.
• The mentor browsing feature showcases different goals and interests relevant to your needs.
• A mentor has to build up reviews from mentees to gain credibility on the platform. 

3. Codementor

As one of the top Programming Mentorship Platforms, Codementor offers one-on-one live mentorship and helps you get answers to complex problems. It was founded in 2013 by Weiting Liu and is based in San Francisco. The company raised an amount of $1.6 million in a seed funding round. The platform personalizes your learning experience with the right mentor and helps you improve your code quality before deployment. All you have to do is share the details of the areas where you need help. You can also choose between instant help and finding long-term mentorship. 

Key Features 

• The platform offers software developers instant one-on-one help by video calling, screen sharing, and text chat.
• Allows you to start a session directly in the chat window. 
• Allows you to personalize your experience.

4. Call The One

Call The One goes beyond the developers of this social networking platform. Some of them have been authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, backend developers, strategic sparring partners, motion graphic specialists, or a combination of all of them. The community makes knowledge accessible and affordable to all. The mentoring platform helps individuals by offering skill, expertise, and knowledge. They specialize in community building and SEO and provide tips about communication, online marketing, and strategy via webinars and live calling. The learning in this community revolves around mathematics, SEO specialization, Social Media specialization, time management coaching, computer repair specialization, WordPress development, and more. 

Key Features

• The community offers itself as the biggest living encyclopedia in the world. 
• The platform offers specialization in generic fields such as online marketing, communication, SEO, time management, Social Media Management, and more. 

5. Presto Experts

This mentoring platform enables advice seekers to first chat with experts. After that hire them as mentors from categories tech, finance, business, and law. This platform is one of the first to provide free chat with the experts before availing their consultation. The mentors have years of expertise in mentoring students at all academic levels. 

Key Features

• The mentors hold top qualifications, stay updated with every school’s syllabus. Also, provide tutoring at all academic levels.
• PrestoExperts is a marketplace of independent certified experts.
• The finance and business experts offer professional services for businesses and individuals. 
• The experts deliver unbiased service in several on-demand businesses.
• On-demand expert help is available in real-time, 24/7.
• Over 30,000 registered experts across 600+ categories.
• Communication takes place via phone, chat, and email.
• Expert credentials undergo thorough screening.
• Ratings and reviews from customers ensure quality.

Final Word – The Future of Online Mentoring Platforms

Having the right mentor can be a real game-changer and impact the trajectory of your life be it due to decisions well-made or advice that helped you secure the job of your dreams. While all these mentoring platforms offer growth and development for individuals, there is no one-size-fits-all mentor. Every case of mentorship is unique, and every mentorship platform is different from the others in terms of its offerings. We hope this article has given you some direction and food for thought so you may find the right fit for your current and future needs.