Mentoring is an interactive process in which a more experienced professional supports and coaches someone less experienced in moving forward in their career. Successful mentoring requires looking at your experiences from new perspectives. At its best, it is a mutual learning journey that benefits both the mentor and the mentee.
I have participated in three rounds of LUT University’s mentoring programme. Each year has been different, and each has left me with new insights. I originally joined the programme out of curiosity and a desire to develop my mentoring skills.
I have 20 years’ experience in procurement in companies of various sizes and industries. For the past five years, I have worked as an entrepreneur at ProcureNode, which provides procurement services, and I have been developing a SaaS solution for indirect procurement. Since software development takes time, I also started consulting in procurement analytics. This has further deepened my expertise.
Every mentoring journey is unique, and the topics covered vary. With my mentees, we have discussed questions related to theses and job searching, procurement processes in industrial settings, as well as entrepreneurship and the productization and development of business ideas.
Even when the topics overlap, addressing them with different mentees leads to examining the subject from many different perspectives. This interaction is precisely what makes mentoring rewarding for the mentor as well. The old saying “you learn by teaching” applies surprisingly well to mentoring even though it’s not strictly teaching; the conversations with mentees constantly deepen my own understanding of the topics at hand and challenge me to view familiar themes with fresh eyes.
Alumni; You are welcome to apply to become a mentor if you have at least five years of work experience and are ready to commit to the programme schedule. The mentor application period is open from 13 August to 11 September.
Master’s or doctoral students; The mentee application period opens in October. Detailed information and schedules can be found on the mentoring website.
The mentoring programme has served as an excellent mirror for my own development. I have had the opportunity to critically examine my career choices and professional path while also sharing lessons I’ve learned with others.
I have been able to explain procurement practices to someone entering the workforce and mentor a person planning to become an entrepreneur. During the latter collaboration, our discussions led to a meaningful moment in which I shared the development journey of the ProcureNode system and how we managed to turn it from an idea into a product. ProcureNode began as a single PowerPoint presentation and has since evolved into a functional solution. It was eye-opening to pause for a moment, look back, and realize just how much progress has been made.
The mentoring programme has served as an excellent mirror for my own development.
Mentoring has also helped me understand how I can transfer my expertise and share my experiences as the company grows. In the early stages of a company, each person’s skills are unique and often critical to the business. As the company grows, overlapping skills emerge within the organization, and dependency on individuals decreases. At the same time, the organization’s resilience increases. This perspective has been highlighted in the discussions I’ve had during mentoring.
The benefits a mentor can gain or aim for through mentoring are not necessarily clear at the beginning. I only realized over time how valuable it can be to share my own experiences. It helps in understanding one’s own development path and gives meaning to what one has gone through.
I warmly recommend taking part in the mentoring programme and joining it with an open mind. At the same time, it is important to reflect on what you hope to get out of mentoring. Your goals don’t need to be perfectly clear at the start – defining them can be part of the process. Often, the benefits become clearer along the way.
At the heart of mentoring is sharing experiences, both successes and failures. In fact, examples of failures may turn out to be the most valuable lessons for someone else. That’s why openness and honesty are the best policies in mentoring.
