Mentoring

I’m interested in becoming a mentor, and am curious what others think a quality mentor should be like. What traits they have, training methods, standards or scruples, etc… When you were mentored, what did your mentor do that really stuck with you or helped? What would you have liked your mentor to be better at? I’m a female. I have three years OTR experience under my belt, and work for a major carrier. I intend to insist upon only one student on my truck at a time, in order to focus on that student’s needs and challenges, and to try to offer a more quality educational experience. Are there any particular tools or training aides that you recommend? I have some ideas, but thought it might be a good idea to get some constructive feedback from the community.

 

Well. My mentor was my dad and the term “lacking patience” comes to mind. So I’d pack your patience. I was grinding gears like I was killing snakes and when asked for advice was told “I dunno.. you just do it. Just shift!” That’s great. Hadn’t thought of that. Be sure to articulate well I guess is the moral of this tale. And remember just because it comes easy to you, it doesn’t to someone just learning it. Best of luck!

 

Your initial post suggests that you would be a great mentor.
You seem to have the same values that my mentor had.

I'll leave it at that, just to see what comes in on advice.

 

I was thinking the same thing when I read the post. The fact that the OP wants to actually train the student instead of just get the extra miles says alot!!! All I can say is, keep that attitude OP and you'll do just fine!!

 

A patient mentor is the best mentor. My dad also mentored me. He would get pretty irritated when I was learning to back up and shift. All that would happen is we'd start yelling at each other. "Turn the wheel the other way. THE OTHER WAY!!" "I ONLY HAVE TWO F****** HANDS DAD!!"...the irritation of his that I felt only put more pressure on me and I either second guessed or over-thought my every move. But seeing his face after the instructor said I passed my CDL test made it all worth it.

 

Haha! Man this triggered some memories! “Turn the wheel the other way” just gave me PTSD. Glad to know it wasn’t just me. Nothing like trying to split gears whilst sobbing.

 

First time I drove through Pittsburgh fully loaded I was sweating bullets, he was patient until we got into the Fort Pitt tunnel and I forgot to split it to the high side. Went for 6th gear and grinded first, then panicked, then got lost. "FLIP IT TO HIGH RANGE, HIGH RANGE!!!" I felt my face burning. Finally make it through the tunnel and start pulling the hill on the other side, I was too scared to downshift. I lugged that old CAT to almost 900 rpms. By the grace of God I skipped a gear and took it up to 1700. Looked like I ran a marathon I was sweating so bad

 

The best I've seen in that category were the "training engineers" at Schneider.

Wow!

VEEERRR-RRY professional.

They were (are?) all great people away from their jobs, too.

How Schneider hires (and keeps!) such quality is beyond me.....

--Lual

 

I would think you’d need to be a belligerent alcoholic who can drink the days crap away after some of the students you’ll have.

 

First of all, make the trainee feel comfortable around you so she/he trusts you. It's this macho crap that gets me, trainers acting like drill instructors, just noe necessary.

Backing, backing and more backing. Not just showing the trainee how to do things, but why.