Experience report: Lilia Yang, Mentee
Lilia Yang talks about her mentorship as if it were an exciting journey that really took off when she was on the road.
Dear Lilia Yang, what are you working on right now?
I am currently doing my PhD at the Sowi Faculty, working as a university assistant at the Graz University of Technology at the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science, have a work contract at Magna International as a scientific consultant for their sustainability strategy, and am currently founding a company, also in the field of sustainability.
What have you studied so far and what are you dealing with in your dissertation?
I studied USW with a focus on business administration in my bachelor's degree and sustainability-oriented management in my Master's degree. I did my second master's degree in Sweden in Business Administration.
In my PhD still revolves around the topic of sustainability, but I am focusing more on the technology side and am moving in the direction of how, for example. Data-Science and Artifical Intelligence can contribute to a circular economy.
What is the company you are founding about?
I am convinced that students can make a huge contribution to the transformation of sustainability-related topics from their studies to companies. My founding idea is that companies approach us with their sustainability problems, students take their knowledge about this to the companies in the form of a training program and work with the companies on solutions, and at the same time the problems of the companies come back to the academic ranks of the university via the students.
At the beginning of my mentoring I was in a phase where I asked myself questions like: Where do I want to go, what do I want to make a difference in the world, what are my strengths.
Your mentorship lasted a year. When you think back, what situation were you in when you started?
All the things I just told you, I didn't have a year ago. That is, I didn't have a job at Magna, I had no idea in which direction my PhD should go, nor did I have my startup. I was in a phase where I was asking myself questions like, where do I want to go, what do I want to make a difference in the world, what are my strengths. I thought to myself, mentors are people with a lot of experience, they can tell me what they have experienced and show me what opportunities lie ahead.
How long did it take you to find your mentor?
I was quite lucky. It was only a few weeks until we had the first appointment. I just wrote to her on the mentoring platform, she replied to me, then we set up a meeting and then it clicked and sort of flowed. So for me it was smooth.
How did you go about your mentorship and what was your role in it?
There was an initial conversation about who she is, who I am, what my goals are and if we are even a good fit for each other. That was the focus of the first call. We then also immediately agreed that we would mainly do online meetings, because she travels a lot and I was also very busy.
My role was actually to be open and honest quite often, to dare to talk about my personal challenges and to share them. My mentor listened a lot, asked a lot of great questions and gave input. She supported me quite strongly with her experiences she has had in companies and gave me a lot of tips along the way.
What were the big blocks of topics?
Summarizing, it was about career topics, about how to best position myself job-wise. At the time I had my mentorship phase, I was in conversations with various people who are in higher positions in companies, all the way up to vice president. That was a big challenge for me because I didn't know how to appear, how to present myself well, what skills I bring to the table. That means I had many sessions with my mentor where she showed me how to perform in a male-dominated world or how to make good presentations.
We also often talked about sustainability issues, about what changes are needed in this world. We also often got into PhD topics because my mentor is also working on her dissertation right now. And she shared some personal stories with me that were very inspiring to me, like how she lives in three different countries because her kids wanted to go to three different schools.
One particularly important area where my mentor guided me, especially in the beginning, was to teach me "You can believe in yourself and your skills, otherwise you'll get in your own way." This combination of personal development, mentoring and reinforcement has brought me to a stage where I am now and say that I can better position myself and give something back to the world.
A final question: Who would you recommend the mentoring program to?
All of them, without exception. I am a big fan of learning from stories. To be taught in a compressed way in one session what other people have experienced over a long period of time. It's easy to seize this opportunity in the mentoring program and use it for your further development.
Dear Lila Yang, thank you very much for the interview!