The largest edition of the NUS MBA mentorship programme

Stretching six months from October 2021 to April 2022, 110 mentors from 13 countries will be mentoring 167 NUS MBA mentees as part of our mentorship programme this year – making this the largest edition of the programme ever.

The mentors come from three different programmes here at NUS: the NUS MBA, NUS Executive MBA (EMBA) and UCLA-NUS EMBA, and they are spread across numerous industries and specialisations, ranging from AI, robotics, banking, consulting, healthcare, venture campital, real estate, start-ups and more.

We hope that our students will benefit tremendously from the exchange of knowledge, insights and experiences over the course of these six months.

Hear from Bruno (Double Degree NUS-HEC programme alumnus) as he shares tips on how one can prepare for the programme to make the most out of it, and from Misha (NUS MBA Jan 2021 intake) on why he decided to join the programme and how the guidance he has received from his mentor has put him a step closer to his goals.

I’d like to share why I decided to join the programme – I came into the programme and then finally got what I wanted from the programme. I’d like to share some tips with you because, for me, the mentorship programme was a great success.

My goal was to come to Singapore and find a job in venture capital. For those of you who know, VC is extremely network heavy. You need to know the industry, you need to know the start-ups, but you also need to know venture capital. I’m French Portuguese, and I’ve come to a new region. If I don’t have any connections to people who understand the ecosystem, it’s almost impossible to break into this sector.

NUS has an extremely well connected alumni network, and a lot of them are in start-ups and venture capital. I had the pleasure of having two of my mentors who are in venture capital, Kwok Lih who invests as a business and jewel in deep tech companies, and Nikhil (Kapur) works as a partner for Strive, which is a Japanese venture capital, investing in seed and series-A throughout Southeast Asia and India. So when I met them individually for coffee, I prepared for my meeting ahead.

The first tip is, prepare for your meeting. I think there are two types of people, there’s the hunter and the explorer. So the explorer is the one who probably do not know exactly what you want to do, but you may have an idea and you want to explore, and you want the mentor to guide you towards what you want to find out. I’m a hunter, so when I came to Singapore, I already knew I wanted to become a venture capitalist. And so the approach when you talk to your mentor, if you’re an explorer, or if you’re a hunter, is extremely different. But the strategy is the same – you have to prepare thoroughly for your meeting. I was also a mentor with some of my classmates and when they came to me, I was the one leading the conversation – that cannot happen, you should be the one telling your journey and getting to know your mentors too, and then find out what exactly you’re looking for, what exactly you want. So that’s what I did — understand where I was standing and where I wanted to go – point A to B, and at the end, how do I get there? Don’t have options A, B, C, D? Which one do you think is the best? So is there another option I haven’t thought about?

So that was exactly how I prepared myself, and then I received invaluable information. Surprisingly, both my mentors gave me very similar guidelines and help.

My name is Misha. I’m a part time student from January 21 intake. I am from Russia, but I’ve been in Singapore for almost seven years. I have a full time job, leading the data team in Keppel Rewards, which is a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation. So first, I’d like to share why I decided to join the mentorship programme. I decided that during my MBA, it was a good opportunity to try out new things. And when I heard about the mentorship programme, I thought it was  a great idea.

I also wanted to explore different career paths for post-MBA life, but I was not quite sure what would be the right approach, so I thought that talking to someone who was already in my shoes before would be a great idea because they could share their experience and point me in the right direction. I didn’t have too much expectations because I’ve never experienced this before, but through the mentorship programme, I managed to set up a plan. I haven’t achieved my goal yet, but I think the way I’m looking at it now is much more structured and much more focused.

So my mentor is Akshay. He’s Head of Commercial Partnerships in Adobe and he’s an NUS MBA alum. I was lucky to have him because he has a very structured approach to mentorship. Bruno is a hunter; I think I’m more like an explorer trying to convert into a hunter. So Akshay sent me a list, a document with a questionnaire where, by answering these questions, you basically start understanding how you should approach mentorship, what is your goal, what you want to achieve, and what will be your long term and short term goals. So this was very helpful. It’s been half a year, and officially the mentorship programme should be completed by now, but I think I will continue talking and meeting regularly with Akshay, going further. So don’t limit yourself to the 6 months, but try to timebox it a bit so that you achieve more. Another thing I learned is that don’t expect a mentor to do your work for you, but they will guide you and make you achieve certain things, so you still have to put in your effort and your time.

A few suggestions to those who are just becoming a mentee. First of all, don’t think about the mentor as your future boss or future employer. Rather, think about them as your senior buddy with more experience who can help you focus your efforts going further, and maybe introduce you to the network, connect you with other people, and provide some guidance. Bruno also mentioned this – take it seriously, same as you would the MBA programme itself. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out of it. So be prepared, be focused.

Last but not the least, enjoy the process, because after all, this is why we’re all here – to enjoy our studies, the mentorship programme, and all our experiences during the MBA.