The 3rd Circle Recruitment Cycle started last Friday, 23 August with the Information Session. There were many undergraduates eager to know more about what The Mentoring Circle had to offer and a few myths that came along with the expectation.
Many of the questions centred on the topic of community. This year the 3rd Circle Executive Committee will set out to value add on the community that our previous Circles helped create!
We started off with a buffet spread for dinner and the night began proper with our 3rd Circle President, Daryl Gan opening with his speech and introduction to The Mentoring Circle. For those who missed our Information Session, click to have a look at our Information Deck.
Panel Discussion
After the introduction, we invited our alumni TMC mentors and mentees, Crystal Goh (mentee), Pranav Sharma (mentor), Paul Cheung (mentor), Wen Lin Neo (mentor), and Tan Xin Hao (2nd Circle President) for a panel discussion. They spoke about their experiences on being a mentee or mentor and debunked some myths that our audience had about mentoring. This panel discussion was smoothly facilitated by 3rd Circle Vice President, Daniele Tan.
We have also transcribed the panel discussion to remember the heartfelt thoughts that our panellists shared that night. It was truly inspiring to hear how TMC had impacted their journeys.
Qn: Share how you would describe your mentee-mentor relationship and what are some of your greatest takeaways from joining TMC?
Pranav:
It has been an interesting relationship thus far! I was initially a Marketing major and that’s how Crystal got paired together with me. But in recent times, I’ve done a 180-degree switch to do Business Development, currently doing it at AWS.
The beauty of the relationship we’ve had was they were able to learn from each other so much. While Crystal was interning at L’Oreal, the data work she did provided me with insights on how I could improve my work as well. Mentoring is a two-way giving and receiving arrangement and whilst I was the mentor, there were always moments when I learnt from talking to Crystal and from the experiences that she’s had as well.
One thing that I do as a mentor also was to open doors for Crystal in the industry that she was interested in. Often, I would send her openings of roles in the different FMCG companies and makeup brands that I knew would benefit her.
And to sum up the relationship, my biggest takeaway was how I got a lot more out of the relationship going in with no expectations.
Crystal:
To add onto what Pranav mentioned, the relationship we’ve had has been informal and chill. Although it was a professional mentoring relationship, it was more importantly a friendship between him and I.
It was also great to see how a senior could come down to my level and have a solid conversation with me. Pranav definitely helped me understand the industry and its technicalities better.
Qn: As previous mentors, how would you describe the TMC community?
Wen Lin:
I have three points to share about the TMC community. The people in TMC are
- Driven and passionate about self-development – not afraid to reach out for help and ask questions to search for answers. From my experience, it was nice to see many mentees and even mentors stepping out of their comfort zones to seek answers for themselves.
- Happy to help – for example, Paul helped many people with market interviews and was happy to share his experiences in his previous internships.
- FUN – my last Starry Night in SMU was exciting spending it with TMC people.
We also have this Telegram Master chat where people from the 1st and 2nd Circle are all in together. Many of us posts internship openings inside this chat and we have a very open network of sharing opportunities. Overall, TMC is a club for likeminded individuals to connect and make long lasting friendships.
Paul:
TMC is about getting to know people and making friends like what Wen Lin mentioned.
When I arrived at this info session, I met many of the people I haven’t seen in a few months due to work. I was happy to see them and catch up with them too. The community in TMC brings people together to become friends and talk about school, work and even personal life sometimes.
The mentors are happy to share and don’t mind talking to new mentees they’ve never met before in formal or informal settings. So, I recommend the incoming mentees to hit any of the mentors up an talk about things you’re interested in but not sure about totally. Academics are important and you should reach out to people if you have interests in certain industries but you’re unsure about.
Qn: As the former President of TMC, how has TMC grown in your perspective?
Xin Hao:
The first would be the scale, in terms of numbers of members in each circle, the amount of outreach we’ve done over the past two years and the events that we’ve organised like Odyssey 2019.
Another growth would be the continuous development of a holistic mentoring programme. I believe we’ve built a mentoring programme that doesn’t just focus on networking, career and jobs but also focuses on nurturing the heart – a heart to give back. It is also one that inculcates life-long values into the members as well.
There’s a misconception that TMC is about jobs and networking but we’re not. Any mentoring programmes in Singapore has one aim to equip mentees with certain habits to grow as an individual including character development and we align ourselves behind this as well.
I’m also delighted to see that the mindset of students growing over the past two years. They are becoming more open to the concept of mentoring others and being mentored as well. This concept is definitely growing in SMU and in Singapore as well.
It’s also been good to see that the mindset of students is growing. More are becoming more open to mentoring others, being mentored and perceiving mentoring as a critical success factor for their journey in life. I’m proud to see the positive traction TMC has gained so far.
Daniele:
I’ve been in TMC since the start as well and one observation I’ve made is that every president in TMC has had a common trait. That trait is one of tenacity and hunger for success and growth which is evident in how TMC has grown so much in two short years.
Qn: So how do you envision TMC to be like in years to come?
Xin Hao:
For current to short term, the focus would be on developing the mentoring model through actual research in SMU to scale from within the university to other educational institutions and nation-wide. I hope that this research and mentoring model can become a powerful tool for others to use to solve some of Singapore’s pertinent social issues in the future.
One thing I think TMC can work on is to close the large gap in the practice of mentoring and the reasons behind why a person is a mentor. For the mentors to be, mentoring may seem a noble and altruistic thing to do but you must be crystal clear as to why you are entering this relationship with a mentee and joining TMC.
I hope that TMC can grow into a community that doesn’t give for the sake of giving but is one that truly knows what we do and why we do it in the first place. What makes the TMC experience special – whatever we do in TMC is not just for ourselves but for others as well.
Q&A
Qn: Why did you join TMC?
Paul:
I joined to meet new people and I felt that I had things to share about work, career, life and friendships.
TMC offered a community and friendship and through the interactions, I’ve learnt so much.
I went in thinking that I was only going to share advice and if a mentee learnt something, great. But since experiencing TMC, I know now that the learning is two ways. It’s applicable to me, even for me to use in the workplace as a junior.
Wen Lin:
I joined as a year 4 and by then, you can’t really join most CCAs in SMU. Since it was my final year, I decided that I wanted to give back to the SMU community and what TMC did resonated with me a lot.
Looking back as a Year 1 and 2, I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I entered a business school after getting rejected by medical school and was lost. I didn’t know what was out there, what majors to take, where to go for exchange and what the functions in a bank was. On hindsight, I wished I could have had someone to do help me out back then and so being motivated from my own experience, I decided to join TMC and give back to the juniors.
Mentoring is a two-way street. My mentee Crystal is such a driven and passionate person and I admire that of her. Even though I was mentor, I learnt so many things from her as well. I highly recommend those in year 3 and 4 to join the club to be a mentor to others. It’s a fulfilling experience.
Year 1 and 2s should join too because you can learn things from those who have learnt the hard way. You will be able to learn things much faster and life would be a little easier for you.
Qn: What were some of the notable events from your time in TMC?
Crystal:
For me it was Starry Night. Before the night fun began, we had the TMC appreciation night where the 2nd Circle came together to thank the mentors and officially close the 2nd Circle cycle. During the event, there was a moment of gift giving by mentees to mentors as a token of appreciation. I gave Pranav a bottle of soju. The significance behind it is that our relationship together started out with a bottle of soju. During our first meeting, we both downed a bottle of soju on a Saturday afternoon and so it’s meaningful how we started with it and ended with it.
The relationship is not only for career and educational advancement but it’s also about getting to know each other, becoming friends and sustaining the relationship. The club is more than getting notes from seniors or getting exclusive internship openings. It’s about meeting people you really want to be with and it’s hard to find a community in university because everyone is always moving around and everything is flitting.
TMC offers a community where people want to help you, be your friend and be there for you. This warmed by heart as a mentee and I saw the potential in the club and was motivated to come back again to join the EXCO.
Xin Hao:
Odyssey 2019 was a memorable event for me. It was a crazy idea from the start and we didn’t have a proper team, timeline or even any budget to work with. But it was a good idea. As the 2nd Circle President, one of my aims was to make it happen, go all out and make this a success. We got together a team of undergraduates from SMU to form a committee and made Odyssey 2019 real. The event showed that TMC was not only a club who provided mentoring to our own members but we cared for the wider SMU community as well. We want others to have the chance to experience mentoring and Odyssey 2019 provided that avenue. Events like these engage and involve the entire SMU community, young and old alumni too. I hope that it will continue on to have a sustainable impact to all who walk into SMU.
Wen Lin:
We had this two days workshop called Compass @ Campus. So during the workshop, we did many activities and lessons where you learn about your personality type and the working style attached to it. Through the two days, I learnt a lot of new perspectives about myself and it was an enriching two days well spent.
We were also placed into groups and I met people in the 2nd Circle I never came across before. This small group we formed was my biggest tangible takeaway from the workshop. Within the group there were external mentors from Compass @ Campus who were retired working professionals. And you would think that after the workshop was over, everyone would forget about each other and not bother to stay in contact. Well no! The mentors constantly seek us out for coffee and in our WhatsApp groups, they will check in on us from time to time.
Qn: What are the struggles faced as a mentor (e.g inadequacy)?
Pranav:
It’s definitely true that the mentors in TMC may not have a lot of life or career experience but being a mentor even for a short moment in a mentee’s life will make an impact, however big or small.
This challenge will never stop because we’re all undergraduates and learning but how I worked around this was to have the thought of knowing that my actions will affect my mentee in a small tiny way. Even just 10 seconds or a few percent is enough to make the relationship meaningful and sincere.
Paul:
We must know as mentors that our advice carries weight and you don’t take it lightly. It’s your responsibility to carry through the relationship and I try to be as honest with them as possible. I clarify that what I say is from my perspective. It’s important to not restrict your mentee to your advice alone and I advice them to always go out and seek other perspectives as well to understand things better.
Wen Lin:
My mentee is interested in wealth management and markets which is completely out of my field so there wasn’t much professional advise I could give to her. Thus, as her mentor I did my best to connect her to the people I knew in wealth management and markets. This was better than me trying to give her any advice. That was the only main problem we faced in our relationship.
Xin Hao:
TMC is not about academics. It’s about one’s personality, character development and other interests. You don’t need a high GPA or an excellent internship experience to mentor someone.
What mentors can get out of TMC is the practice of self-reflection on your own experiences.
Reflect and pick up small learning lessons along the way – it’s a very powerful learning tool for oneself because when a mentee asks a question, it forces you to reflect on your own decisions and actions. It forces you to rethink and improve. Being a mentor is a process of self-mentoring as you mentor others.
Qn: What was it like being a mentee?
Crystal:
As a Year 2, I joined as a mentee and I remember being at the Info Session a year ago, standing in crutches. After hearing what TMC had to offer, I felt that this was a place I could develop myself as an individual and as a friend too.
Biggest takeaway from my journey at TMC is the relationship I’ve had with Pranav. He has helped connect me to others and he has such a good speaking skill. I’ve learnt to talk better, put myself forward and present myself better to others in networking sessions and in interviews.
It was heartening to see that even though I was a marketing person, Wen Lin and Paul still took the time to answer my simple questions about Finance. They were one of my first friends in TMC and were open and willing to help me in any area I needed help with even though I wasn’t their mentee.
Final remarks!
Xin Hao:
Go in with an open mind! Mentees, you are not here to take and mentors, you’re are not here to give only.
Everyone is here to learn. Classification of alumni, mentee or mentor is not important in TMC because all of us are mentees for life. Have a mindset of lifelong learning as you enter this relationship and that will make the relationship work!
Crystal:
It’s not an elitist club, some people might think that because we have members who have impressive achievements. Yet when I joined, I was a person without any achievements on paper. For those incoming, don’t compare with others in the club who are very ahead in their professional journey. You don’t have to come in with any prerequisites.
TMC gave me a chance to shine.
Be yourself, be willing to learn and be willing to give back.
That’s the heart of TMC.
A big thank you to all who came down for the Information Session! Our Recruitment Cycle application period closes on 28 August and we look forward to bringing in a new batch of mentors and mentees into the 3rd Circle. Keep a look out for the events to come in this Academic Year!
Click here to sign up as a mentee or a mentor:
Mentee | Mentor
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