Q&A: Why join the Industry Mentoring Program?
Why did you choose to join the Industry Mentoring Program?
Elma
When I first joined the Industry Mentoring Program, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my degree.
I soon realised it would be important to incorporate my intrinsic motivations into my future career, but I wasn't sure how they could fall into the work of accounting.
With the Industry Mentoring Program, I challenged myself to be proactive and take advantage of networking opportunities. I wanted to learn more about various professions to inform myself of my options and the value I can bring to my work.
Mark
I know from my own personal experience that having a clear understanding of career direction can strengthen your sense of purpose, the impact your work has and the satisfaction you draw from that.
But developing that clarity is not straightforward. You need to be deliberate and engaged about how you approach that task to have a chance.
My interest in joining the Industry Mentoring Program was to try to assist a young person to better understand what they can do to be more deliberate about clarifying their career direction and to help them believe that they can do those things successfully.
How has the Industry Mentoring Program benefited you?
Elma
With Mark's help, I developed a sense of purpose with my motivations and my career goals.
I was completing the program alongside my second year of study where I started to find a lot of my units of studies aligning with each other, and different career paths, previously unknown to me, started to appear. Everything started to come together, and Mark’s insight and experiences greatly assisted in my self-research into career paths.
By learning how to set micro-goals, I now have a relatively solid career plan! Even if what I have decided on now may not be what I do in the future, I am so glad to have gone through this process of self-learning and reflection.
Mark
Any opportunity to have open conversations with other people about career aspirations, challenges and capabilities is worthwhile.
The Industry Mentoring Program provided me those opportunities with Elma over the course of several months, but also with the other mentor and mentee participants in the program at periodic networking events.
The range of perspective that I gained from this diverse group was interesting and informative, provided useful considerations for my own career thinking, and will enable me to be more effective with other mentoring opportunities that might arise.
What was the highlight of the Industry Mentoring Program?
Elma
My absolute highlight was having someone as experienced as Mark as my mentor!
It was unfortunate that we could only Zoom call due to the circumstances of Covid-19 at the time, but our discussions were always so insightful.
From recognising the importance of purpose to understanding where I can build the necessary experience and skills, Mark has taught me how to be more thoughtful and deliberate with how I engage with work, and network with other individuals.
Everything is a learning process, and it was great to finally get out of my comfort zone to talk to other professors and industry professionals.
Mark
I had seven or eight in-depth discussions with Elma, building an understanding of her interests and capabilities at first and challenging her to consider various initiatives that would build her confidence about how to take ownership of her career direction.
Small steps at first became more confident steps later in the program. Being able to observe that a mentee has gained some insights that they can use going forward is rewarding.
By the end of the program Elma was encouraged to take some very specific networking initiatives that she might initially have been reluctant to pursue. The fact that she was able to do this successfully, benefit from it and be pleased with the achievement was a highlight.
