Participant Testimonials

Mentor Testimonials

"Mentoring is fun, truly. I got to share a whole bunch of 'wisdom' that I'd learnt the hard way over six years, and it was great to pass that on to my mentee who was genuinely interested."

Callum Mentor.

"Becoming a mentor was an incredibly rewarding experience. It provided me with an opportunity to share my knowledge and experience that I had gained through my career progression with the aim of helping students navigate the post-academia landscape. But whilst doing so it also provided me with many insights into some of the challenges students are facing today. Overall, it was a great way to give back to the university community and I look forward to participating in this program again in the future!"

"The program was valuable in reminding me of the commitment, energy and enthusiasm of our students, and the challenges they face in establishing themselves in a rapidly changing workforce. It was an invigorating and satisfying experience."

Amanda - mentor.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my mentoring experience. My mentee and I were really well matched and I felt that I was very helpful to her. It gave me a lot of satisfaction to be able to provide guidance and advice based on my experience in the workforce and to be able to give something back to the University of Melbourne."

Helen - mentor.

"Mentoring students who need advice on career choices is important. Helping them to critically think through the issues associated with these important decisions is rewarding for mentors. Being a part of the story in a student's career decisions has always been a passion of mine. The experience has enriched both myself and my mentee."

Tracey-Ann - mentor.

Student Testimonials

"I am definitely going to recommend this program to other students, especially to the international graduate students. My mentor helped me a lot to understand job search specifics in Australia and gave very useful insights. I started to get more interest from the potential employers and I managed to understand which mistakes I had in my previous application process."

Anastasia - mentee.

"I cannot express how grateful I am to have been part of the program and I am going to treasure this friendship I have made and look forward to continuing it well into the future.  My calls with my mentor were always the highlight of that week and I have gained such a broad range of invaluable skills and industry related knowledge through the connection that I might not have gained until many years into the future. I was absolutely blown away by the generosity, patience and passion my mentor brought to every single meeting we had. My professional dreams are suddenly so much more tangible and actually closer in reach than I ever thought they were. I feel more a part of the professional community than I ever have and I cannot wait to leap into professional life."

Hugo - mentee.

"You never know what you may learn or discover from your mentor, it was a real eye-opening experience for me."

Lakshani - mentee.

"This is a great program that I really would recommend to any student to get involved with. During undergrad, it is quite rare that we can foster a lasting mentoring relationship with an expert in our area of interest. So, I really appreciate this opportunity. The resources provided for us also helped us plan some productive mentoring sessions at the start. The way this program is structured also provided us with enough freedom to plan mentoring sessions by ourselves and resulted in us often naturally find other topics later in the program."

Yifan - mentee.

"Conversing with my mentor was similar to untangling a messed-up yarn thread to a neat ball. My mentor's extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of my study area helped me connect better with her and I now have a clear picture of what I could expect from different career paths."

Saravanan - mentee.

"I've really enjoyed this mentoring program, and not only has it opened my eyes to many different career options in the industry but I've also been able to expand my network and meet people in different positions and hear about their experiences as well."

Isabella - mentee.

"This was a great experience. I was able to connect with someone in a career that I might be interested in pursuing in the future and so it was great to hear from someone that had been through the same program at Melbourne University (although different in their day) and understand the process of getting that first job. Although it was online, it was incredibly rewarding and it has opened up a lot of new avenues I had previously not considered and made me more aware of the options there are after university."

Zainab - mentee.

"I found this program extremely helpful. I love the workshop series being offered alongside the mentoring. While the workshops are more informational and gives me a general understanding of a job-ready topic, the mentorship really helps me on a personal, tailored level. Hearing my mentor's own story and experience is also exciting and beneficial."

Khanh - mentee.

Last updated: 18th April 2024.