What's new at Present Connection?

We have interviewed mentor Darius and mentee Audrius about their mutual experiences with mentorship within Present Connection.

How did your mentoring story begin? Who was the initiator?

Darius: “Present Connection initiated the mentoring program and asked for volunteers. Candidates could pick the mentor they liked. I guess Audrius liked me, lol.”

Audrius: “At the same time I started to write my bachelor’s report at university, the company started their mentoring program. I wanted to deliver a high-quality report and learn something new. It was a great opportunity for me, and luckily, I managed to grab Darius as my mentor.”

What professional challenges did you face during the collaboration?

Darius: “To understand the product Audrius was building and not increase the scope by limiting the project to core features. It is always tempting to add this and that. Since we changed the frontend stack, it took time to rewrite the code and get Audrius up to speed.”

Audrius: “I had little experience in this field, and limited time to do my project, it was challenging to manage the time and questions that needed answers so that I could make the most use of Darius’ knowledge in the least time.”

How did you both manage to motivate yourself to take extra time away from work to fulfill your mentoring commitments?

Darius: “It is easier to motivate yourself when you work on something interesting, like Audrius’s project: product and stack-wise. So I didn’t need to motivate myself much. I guess Audrius’ best motivator was the deadline.”

Audrius: “Exactly. I had no chance even to think about the motivation because I had little time to finish my project and spent all my spare time on it. “

What advantages of mentoring would you highlight from your personal experience?

Darius: “Although you share the knowledge during mentoring, no one knows everything. By educating others, you learn yourself. And it is an excellent way to experience a team lead position, of course for one person, but still.”

Audrius: “Obviously, you have a chance to gain knowledge from a more experienced mentor. But besides that, you also learn how to ask relevant questions. And it is also a great way to get to know the company and the people.”

Have you experienced any funny things during your collaboration?

Darius: “Audrius code? Joking. Not to mention a specific one, but overall, it was fun.”

Audrius: “Darius liked to share his own funny stories about his bachelor project and final assessments to calm me down.”

What results have you achieved?

Darius: “Audrius completed his studies and gained more experience on the new stack.”

Audrius: “I achieved even more than I expected. I got to meet a wonderful mentor and learned a lot from him. I got a good grade for my bachelor’s project and gained some experience in web development technologies, which led me to my current work position. Need I say more?

Do you have any plans for further collaboration?

Darius: “We have planned more Q&A sessions with Audrius. This is the first of more to come.”

Audrius: “Yes, there is still a lot to learn. So, until Darius gets tired of me, I will keep bothering him ;).”

Sandra Žemaitaitytė

Marketing Specialist