Jimmy McLoughlin’s Notebook: Mentoring, Moore’s law and a south London butcher
Over the past 20 years, the world of mentoring has undergone a significant transformation, particularly in the City and financial services. One major and under-appreciated factor in this transformation is the rise of social media, which has partly made it easier for aspiring mentees to approach potential mentors. But for the most successful people, there is still the age old problem of time, and the question of how to scale mentoring.
In the past, finding a mentor in the City was a challenge. Approaching someone outside of your immediate circle was challenging.
However, with the advent of social media, it has become easier to connect with people who can offer guidance and support.
Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram have made it possible for mentees to reach out to potential mentors and engage in conversations about their experiences and insights. This has also opened up opportunities for more diverse mentor-mentee relationships, as people from different backgrounds can connect and share knowledge.
The Taylor Bennett Foundation is a great example of getting more Asian and Black people into communications roles, for example.
Another way that mentoring has changed is the abundance of content available to aspiring mentees. Blogs, podcasts, and interviews with successful professionals in the industry provide a wealth of information and insight into what it takes to succeed. Mentees can now approach potential mentors with a specific point of reference, rather than a vague request for guidance.
For a mentor, the challenge of time and scale is always a problem. At Jimmy’s Jobs we are talking to more and more city grandees who want to work with us to produce effective mentoring content.
They can record four or five interviews with us on their journey and how they would approach it if they were in their early 20s in the modern era. Previously many grandees may have considered writing a book, but now many realise there are many other ways to create effective legacy content.
Rest in peace
Gordon Moore, the man who came up with the concept of Moore’s law passed away this week at the age of 94. As I write below, compared to the pace of AI, his call that computing power would double every two years looks almost quaint.
AI on the march
The speed at which AI is moving is daunting. The last three months have seen as much progress as in the previous three years. It is possible that this correlation could be the same after the next three weeks.
Moore’s law has given way to more, more, more.
It’s no exaggeration to say it has the potential to impact every single walk of life to unimaginable levels. Like previous revolutionary tech, it will no doubt remove the need for certain jobs, but the previous evidence is that a whole lot of new jobs will be created off the back of it.
Yesterday the government produced its white paper on AI, and has pledged £2 million for a new sandbox, similar to the fintech sandbox, which many in the City will be familiar with and appreciate.
We recorded an episode of the podcast with Michelle Donelan, the tech secretary, exploring the future of UK science, innovation and technology which will be out next week.
Now even the butchers are influencers…
Whenever Boris announced a lockdown, my first phone call was to Meat Jon in Ladywell, who during the first lockdown, seemed to be working night and day delivering the best sausages this side of Bavaria all across London. Why go to a high street butcher?
Many go for the experience of being able to see the meat before buying, but also potentially for tips on how to cook a specific type of cut of meat that they may not have tried before. Meat Jon has now started doing Friday evening classes via Instagram on what is going to be in the shop over the weekend and how to cook it. It demonstrates how a small high street shop is able to reach a far wider audience than just the surrounding area. You can check him out on Insta @meatjon
Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future is available on all podcast platforms and https://www.jobsofthefuture.co/at jobsofthefuture.co