Let’s Read about Prashant & Pranavi’s Story
Background:
Prashant works in Wipro as a Practice Manager in the hardware division providing techno-commercial solutions. In his spare time, Prashant used to teach and help poor students in one of the schools in Bangalore. This was one of the motivations for him to take up mentorship. Another reason was the support he received from one of his class teachers who acted as a father figure and used to do a lot for society during his free time.
Pranavi is a second-year student studying Information Science at UVCE College, Bangalore. During our initial discussion, Mentor Together identified that Pranavi needed help in career counselling, support to improve her communication skills and prepare herself for job interviews and her career in general.
Their motivation to sign-up for the program
Prashant says this about his motivation to sign up for Mentor To Go program, “I have been very keen in helping shape some of the future talents. I was already aware of the program through one of my family members. While I always liked the goal, I found in-person meetings to be a challenge owing to my dynamic work schedule. The Mentor To Go version had the best of both worlds — it eliminated the need for in-person meetings while maintaining the end goal which hit the bull-eye for me.
On the other hand, Pranavi’s says, “I joined the program as I needed support to improve my communication skills and wanted to gain insight into the work environment. Additionally, I wanted to learn how I can manage my emotions.
Overall experience in the app-based program
Prashant says it was a no-frills app with an easy to use UI. While some of the questions and the intent were not immediately clear, I could, however, perceive the clarity as I progressed in the training. Moreover, the eventual conversation with the Mentor Together Team was beneficial in terms of setting the right expectations, do’s, dont’s, support etc.
We work separately on our modules and the app helps us in storing and viewing our responses. The feature of viewing our responses in the sequence had given rise to some very interesting conversations and reasoning as to why a particular response was selected. This, in turn, allowed a lot of interactive discussions that were beneficial to both.
We plan over a call as to when we could target clearing our separate tasks of the next session. This near-term view allows making the plan flexible to incorporate exam time, business trips, etc. In case there are any queries, change in plans etc, we used to discuss them over WhatsApp.
Let’s read what they have shared about their mentoring interactions
Prashant says, “I am glad at the thought that my experiences and inputs are helping someone. Some of my mentee’s experiences and problem statements trigger a fruitful discussion in terms of chalking out a path. I hope I have been able to create a great foundation for my mentee, which will help in not just a good career but in wholesome development. And my mentee could in turn help create a better tomorrow for herself and others.
Pranavi says I got a perfect match and I am happy with that. My mentor is really good, we have many similarities hence it was easy for us to build a connection. My mentor communicates well, he shares his experience at work and had also introduced me to many new things which I was not aware of earlier. Overall, I feel I have not only learned new skills but have also understood many new aspects related to work which is going to be useful for me in the future.