Work with A Mentor (WWM)

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Mentor is very important to the everyone no matter in university or workplace. A good mentor
will lead you to a brighter future in your life. The question is why we need a mentor? Okay
well, the first benefit is mentor can be our cheerleader and help us to discover new
opportunities. For instant my mentor is my FYP supervisor as well, what he did for his mentees
was he will give the opportunity to us once he received the news regarding the competition.
One of the competition that he introduced to us is organized by Innovate Malaysia Design
Competition 2017. At first our proposal has been accepted but due to schedule could not match
with our schedule and financial support is the second issue, so we decided to pull out from the
competition. Besides that, mentor can provide you with a wealth of knowledge and resources
and help you to connect with various Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

A motivated and inspired person always is my first criteria in selecting a mentor. Because I
believed the perception of a motivate person is different, they will think positively on every
circumstances that they faced and threat them as challenge in stead of problem. With this kind
of characteristic, the people around him will get influence as well. Besides that, he or she must
be an experienced person in the field that same with me. So that I can get advised or the solution
from him when I faced the problem.

They both have their own expectation in mentor and mentee relationship. For mentor, they
expect to have more than one meeting with their mentee and at least one is face-to-face meeting.
Besides that, the content of the discussions within the mentoring relationship are keep
confidentially. Mentors should assess the mentoring relationship at least annually at the time
of agreement renewal. On the other hand, mentees have to maintain regular and frequent
contacts with their mentor. We as a mentee is encouraged to share our career plans with our
mentor, recount their initiatives for professional development, ask for advise, reflect on the
mentors observation; and update to mentor about the progress and results of various effort.
Similar to mentor, mentee have to re-evaluate the mentoring relationship with the mentor
annually. Perhaps in term of survey forms.

I meet my mentor very often because he is my supervisor as well. The issue I discuss with him
mostly related to my final year project. My final year project is about to improve the sludge
flow in the mixing tank by designing a new blade. He is an expert in this field, so if I have any
problem that could not solve then I will seek for him. The root cause for the error occur is due
to the parameter setup and the solution is to change to parameter. Besides that, I also discuss
with him regarding the grease leaking issue on the machine. At the end we found out the root
cause is the o-ring not working properly and the only solution is to replace with the new one.