📌 Fantastic Mentors and Where to Find Them!
Yup. That's me. You may be wondering how I got here. How did I get such amazing mentors?
The concept of having mentors is neither restricted to the design industry, nor is mentorship restricted to just design.
But I am here to tell you guys about the sheer importance of having a mentor/mentors in your life from a design standpoint.
🤩 So how did I come across not one mentor, but 3?
I was a freelance UI Designer — I realized I needed to get better — I asked around for advice and an industry leader recommended me to his ex colleague.
I was too wary of directly saying hi to him — and even if I did say hi, getting a reply would have been next to impossible given how senior and famous he was.
👀 What did I do then? I joined his bootcamp.
I borrowed some money to do so from a friend (and let me tell you it hurts me to borrow money from people, but I did it anyway). I have zero regrets.
Now after joining a bootcamp — one is supposed to work on their projects, right?
I didn’t. Instead, I volunteered to improve the guide books (work books) for such projects. It was supposed to be a 2-day thing, but days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.
Yes, I may have wasted a lot of time here. But my lost time was compensated by the amazing bonds and friendships I made.
🤗 Bonds and friendships? This is where I met Arpita.
I wasn't taking active mentorship from Arpita at the time since we were all just working and enjoying life — my mini mentors Bhavana and Mehek were busy fixing me as a person, mostly soft skills.
GEEZ HOW MANY MENTORS DO YOU HAVE DUDE? Many.
I got burnt out, took a break, went back to freelancing.
During my time away from the bootcamp, Arpita was my go-to for each and every UX-related query. Be it deciding next steps for my career, getting a design reviewed, or directly pointing out why I was getting rejected even without having a conversation with potential employers (#internshala).
She helped me fix a lot of mistakes and guided me to the right path with a proper timeline.
And just like that, my college ended.
😨 College ended? And you still didn't have a job?
Yeah, I didn’t. However, I had scored good marks in the engineering placement exams so I was least bothered about the engineering spectrum. I knew I would easily get an engineering job.
I asked Anudeep to put me in a new batch — and that's how I churned out a couple of case studies from the program.
I was put in a group, and being the enthusiastic person I am, I tried to gamify the whole process of doing projects in a way that would hold all of us responsible for completing our case studies.
How well did it work out? Pretty well. Four of us have full time roles, while the other three are interning — soon to be full time as well.
😎 Case studies were now out — how about applying?
Well, I wanted to work on one more project, so I didn't start applying yet. Regardless, a couple days after posting a case study (Waiterist), Kishan texted me asking if I wanted to apply to Scaler (I really hadn't heard the company’s name earlier, but thank you so much Kishan!)
Not only did I get an inbound lead, this was my first interview of my life, and I cracked it.
😇 Cracked an internship? But you mentioned 3 mentors earlier right?
Yes I did. This is where Pushti came into the picture. She took my whiteboarding round and voila! Next thing we knew, I was working with her as my manager in Scaler.
Throughout the course of my internship — she has been an absolutely amazing manager + mentor who has helped me a lot when it comes to working in a professional workspace and with a team.
Now that I have given a rough timeline of how I met with these mentors, let me tell you more about how they influenced me!
👑 Anudeep Ayyagari
Anudeep was quick to assess the potential I had and provided me multiple opportunities in the community to host challenges, lead the UI club, take up a certain tough topic for book sessions and what not.
I remember having countless Adobe XD vs Figma debates with him. In the end, Figma obviously won and I started hating Adobe XD because the collaboration features were not as good.
At times he asked me not to take certain approach, fearing it might not work out for me — but when I took the leap of faith and got good results, he was always quick to acknowledge that he was wrong.
He is someone who didn’t just teach, but also learnt stuff. And don’t even get me started on the Attack on Titan discussions we used to have once I introduced him to the series. I would be lying if I said I didn’t regret introducing the anime masterpiece to him haha 🤣.
Moreover, he even took out time from his busy schedule to help me out with my interview process for my first internship.
He told me my strengths and weaknesses straight to my face so I could improve on them.
Perhaps, he should also have the credit of making me an auto-layout freak.
One of the most recent lesson I learn from him was to have humility — because if it’s obvious for me, it doesn’t mean it’s obvious to others.
Anudeep, Nīvu adbhutaṁ!
🦜 Arpita Dhir
I can’t say enough about her. She played a monumental role when it comes to helping me get where I am. If I’m not sure how to approach a certain situation, she’s my go-to.
Be it UX discussions, TV series recommendations, industry insights, dealing with situations, helping me try out beer for the first time XD, she’s always up for it.
In fact, I have also broken down in front of her a couple times while discussing my career and the time I wasted on my website XD. And trust me, I do not break down easily. She is a gem.
One of the perks of being her mentee — we are always welcome at her AMAZING place.
Arpita, makes time for you even if she’s busy. And if she happens to be unavailable, she’ll make sure to follow up as soon as she’s free. Moreover, if she finds out you’re sad, she’ll make sure to cheer you up!
And let’s not even get into design industry goss :P
Her ability to accurately pinpoint my weaknesses, improve my thought processes, and guiding me throughout our time is one of the reasons I stand where I stand.
Arpita! You’re breathtaking!
🦋 Pushti Bhatia
Although she was my manager and was responsible for me as I interned at Scaler, she acted more like a mentor — she always, and I reiterate, always had my best interest in mind.
She really helped me figure out working with a team because before this internship, even in hackathon projects, I’d always been a lone wolf.
Pushti paid special attention to improving my soft skills and helped me figure out how to read the room, what to say, and when to say it and otherwise.
Apart from providing critical feedback when it was needed, she was always quick to appreciate my skills and tell me why I should not undervalue myself.
And she was always careful not to let me burn out — since I kept up with my work and never really missed deadlines, she would let me take breaks whenever I needed them, and I came back stronger afterwards!
I would even endlessly rant to her— and she would just be there and listen.
Moreover, she inculcated a habit of ‘showing up anyway’. Earlier, if I felt there was a single con, or perhaps an excuse to not go — I would just cancel the plan. She helped me become a person who won’t cancel a plan unless it’s not feasible at all.
She does make fun of me because I absolutely suck at making collages. There was this one time I was trying and she had this “Tumse na hopayega” expression 🤣 and did it for me instead.
Pushti, you’re amazing!
P.S.: The emojis are all our inside jokes.
I hope this blog was a worthwhile read and you folks were able to take away something from it.
TL:DR:
- Get in touch with mentors, and succeeding in the industry will be not be THAT difficult.
- Forge quality relationships with mentors.
- Always connect regularly. Like, Always. ALWAYS.
- Take feedback and work on them very very seriously.
- Timebox yourself for everything (yeah but we both know you won’t be following this one :P).
If you want to know more about my story and about me as a person — check out my LinkedIn :)
