Susana Passinhas – Meet the Mentor

Why did you decide to become a mentor?

During the pandemic I was invited to be an Instructor at a UX/UI Bootcamp, it was a long-time dream to be able to inspire and guide future designers, and soon enough I discover how much energy and happiness it brought me. The impact I have by shaping designers with the right UX mindset is by far greater than just dedicating myself to a single company/product. It's really rewarding to be able to empower people and help them transform their lives.

How did you get your career start?

My career as a mentor took off when I was able to quit my full-time job and exclusively dedicate myself to my mentees and students. After over 16 years of working with amazing designers, developers, project managers, and so on, from who I learned a lot and in all types of setups (agencies and product companies from startups to scaleups) and business areas (energy, healthcare, services), I felt I had so much to share and it was time to do it.

What do mentees usually come to you for?

Usually, mentees are looking for a career change and they need help navigating that process which can be quite challenging depending on what field the mentee is coming from. Also, mentees look for clarification and guidance when they are taking an online course or learning by themselves without any guidance or feedback. What they look for is the confirmation that they need about what they are learning and to make sure they are learning things correctly.

What's been your favourite mentorship success story so far?

I can say that my mentee's success story is about a career change. The mentee wanted to switch from front-end development to UX/UI Design and could successfully do it inside the company the mentee already worked at making it an easy transition. This is typically the smoother way to do a career change and I strongly recommend starting as a Junior in the company you already are familiar with (if you can).

What are you getting out of being a mentor?

I feel I am in total resonance with what I am here to do - to teach, to inspire to guide. I always tell my mentees and students that "You know which things you should be doing if they give you energy", and for me, that is pretty evident, I can be really tired but after a session or a class I feel I gained energy and could do it for hours! I have so much advice to give on how to approach work, relationships at work, managing your work, being user-centric when your company is not, and many more!