Stephen Downes

I'm not so quick to call mentoring "malarkey" as Donald Clark, but I share some of his scepticism. Like Clark, I never had a mentor (and would probably have pushed back against one if I had). And I would definitely echo this: "It is your life and career, so don't for one minute imagine that the HR department has the solutions you need." Having said that, I think I'm much less inclined to criticize mentoring than Clark. If people are more comfortable with, and prefer the guidance of, a single person, then that seems perfectly fine with me. I think I'd want to see envidence that it's harmful before I criticized them.