Mentor Salla Laine
A mentor will help you to imagine what it is like to have a job that looks like you.
Salla is working as a research and development manager in IVD chemistry at Uniogen, and mentored a physics student in spring 2024. She holds a PhD in cell and molecular biology from the University of Turku.
According to Salla, becoming a mentor was mostly a spontaneous decision. She has never been a mentor before, but has, among other things, guided less experienced and new employees in her career. She had few preconceived ideas about mentoring, but decided to go in with an open mind and encourages others to do the same.
Salla got her mentee when a few students were still without a mentor. She says she was particularly impressed with the mentee’s CV and felt an immediate connection with the student. The mentoring itself was facilitated by the fact that the programme came at the right moment. Salla had free time and the mentee was active and enthusiastic. The collaboration was therefore balanced. Salla also mentions that it was easy to fit the five meetings with the mentee into her calendar.
Salla feels that both were satisfied with the mentoring experience. Both she and the mentee were new to the mentoring process, so there was no pressure to perform perfectly. Salla and the mentee met at lunch meetings, to which Salla's colleagues were invited. The student also had the opportunity to visit the workplace, where they were given a tour by various experts. "We shared the best bits of working life and reflected on how our own values influence our enjoyment of work", Salla says. In addition, the mentee received advice on how to look for a job, how to improve their CV and information on current work-life skills.
But the benefits were not limited to the student. Salla mentions the valuable networking within the mentors and her own workplace. "For example, I had not previously discussed what kind of educational backgrounds my colleagues in the company came from", Salla says. She also mentioned reconnecting with people in her network whom she hadn’t been in touch with for many years. Mentoring has therefore been a good conversation starter.
Salla has simple advice for the next mentors: be brave and be yourself. There is a need for a wide range of mentors and the threshold to get involved is not high.