Thas Naseemuddeen at Deutsch LA: A mentor is key to find your advertising voice

Thas Naseemuddeen, VP and group strategy director with Deutsch LA, expressed some ideas about the importance of finding a mentor to guide professionals in the advertising industry. “Advertising is a funny industry. There’s an expectation that when you enter, you bring a fully formed perspective and voice that will undoubtedly sprinkle all your smarty-smarts over all you encounter. Finding your voice is not an easy task, so it’s key to find a mentor to give you some clarity on the way.” According to Naseemuddeen, as a woman, it’s not easy to find this person, because many leaders of departments or teams are male and this can be a tricky relationship for many of them. “I have been really lucky to have several guys step up to the plate and be great leaders and career shepherds, but unfortunately that may be an exception rather than the rule.” She suggested that you can meet your mentor out of your office, to go outside your own bubble. “I found some of my early mentors via Twitter, maybe they never really knew they were my mentors. Twitter five years ago was a slightly different place than it is today, it was really actively sharing and chatting, which allowed me to make important connections.” A mentor doesn’t need to be a person in the same discipline. A creative can give a brand executive a broader picture than he can imagine and vice versa. “The most important is to appreciate the time and generosity of your mentors” she concluded.