Why did you decide to become a mentor?
Being a mentor felt like a natural addition to what I have been doing throughout my career. In my management consulting and CTO positions I often had to explain difficult technical and strategic ideas to others, with everybody at a different stage of understanding and experience. As a manager, it was always a fundamental part of my responsibilities to ensure the less experienced people get a head start with knowledge and motivational support from me. On a personal level, I love mentoring for the very same reasons I love consulting - it allows me to see how other people think, and get a glimpse in their careers - each different and full of possibilities. On top of that I find lots of meaning in this work, since the feedback loop between my help to the mentee and the impact on their daily work and career is much shorter than much of my other work.
How did you get your career start?
I got a relatively unconventional start. I had a degree in bioinformatics, which nowadays seems like an obvious fit for data science and machine learning, but at the time the title Data Scientist just started to appear on the continent, being transplanted from the US. As a scientist I used to do all the things that the job requires even to this day, but the title and path were not defined yet. This is why I took the long road and first worked for some time as a software engineer, until I realised that there is a demand for data science. Then I had the fortune to meet my first significant mentor, who gave me both my start in data science - seeing my skills, and also gave me the advice that eventually made me a CTO. After reaching the senior level in data science, I grew frustrated with the lack of influence I could have on the work, so I transitioned to more strategic and management positions which I still do to this day.
What do mentees usually come to you for?
Most mentees come to me when they are at crossroads in their career. Often transitioning from more technical data roles into more strategic and management positions. The relatively static paths they see in front of them make them hesitant to take the necessary steps, and they want to get an honest account of what is it to do it in practice, with many lessons learned. The mentorship sessions are extremely diverse, with a combination between technical, management and strategic topics, and of course the personal development, belief and ways of working one needs to get such lateral or vertical career moves done.
What's been your favourite mentorship success story so far?
Early in my work on Mentorcruise I started working with someone who felt stuch in a technical role, and felt invisible to management. They were extremely ambitions and hard-working, but lacked that tiny bit of experience and encouragement to take the big step. With that person the mentorship was very easy and productive because they were able to quickly learn just by example. All I had to do is make apparent the possibilities around their career and they quickly identified many more themselves, eventually becoming independent. I still follow their career, and am happy I was there at a crucial step.
What are you getting out of being a mentor?
On top of the other things I mentioned (how impacting other people positively has a lot of meaning, and how intellectually stimulating it can be), it makes me reflect on my career. Even if I have relatively large body of experience, I am still trying my best to be open to new ideas, tools and ways of seeing the world. And there is no better way to get this than working with other people from all over the world.
