It was early September 2009 when I first got an e-mail about mentoring programme organized by Paper Engineers’ Association (PI). During that time, I wrote my master’s thesis and I was already thinking the work life after the thesis. Truthfully, I wasn’t so sure about my decision to become a plant design expert and I was eager to learn more about the plant design career. Therefore, the mentoring programme was exactly what I was looking for in that September. I decided to apply immediately and wrote an application to PI that I would like to have a mentor who has made career in plant design side.

The first meeting with mentors and students was in January 2010. When I first met my mentor in lobby before the meeting I already got very positive image of him. In the end of the meeting I found out that the mentor is much more than I expected. He was definitely an expert on the field of plant design, he had lived in all over the world and what was the most important, it was easy to talk with him, no need to be nervous. Later on, I learned that my mentor had started his impressive career in similar way that I’m thinking to start mine and this gave an excellent starting point to our chats after the first meeting.

What did we then talk about with my mentor and how often did we meet? We had about two hours meeting every one and a half months and in addition we changed e-mails and talked in the phone. Every meeting had its own topic which we had agreed in the previous meeting or via e-mail. We talked about career paths, the job of process engineer today and in the past, living abroad, working in different cultures, entrepreneurship etc. We also had one meeting with another mentor pair and one other meeting where my mentor had asked few of his colleagues to attend.

Overall, the meetings with my mentor were very interesting and useful for my future. Especially, I remember the pair meeting when we had a great chat about working abroad. I have thought long time that working abroad would be nice but it would have its challenges, but after having the discussion with mentors I know how to cope with the challenges and make the time enjoyable.

I warmly recommend taking part to the next years mentoring programme!

Matti Aarnio