Mohamed, who will be landing in Canada shortly, shares his experience of how being a mentee helped to explore alternative career options and be prepared for the Canadian workplace culture.

My name is Mohamed Awad and I am a new Canadian immigrant working as a Mechanical Engineer.  I started the mentorship program with JVS Toronto’s Canada InfoNet because I wanted to have a better understanding of Canadian workplace culture and how I could get involved in it. I explored different options and then I realized that I have to be more flexible in terms of career path. I was really excited about the idea of having a mentor who could guide me through this transition and explore other options related to my field where I could keep growing in professional and personal terms.

I met my mentor who is a Mechanical Engineer in November 2021 and shared my experience with him and then he started guiding me. He showed me what it was like to work as a Contractor and Supervising Consultant for construction sites. I had an online meeting with the mentor and it was a constructive meeting in which the mentor answered most of my questions. Those meetings, apart from being very important to me, gave me many other things. For example, I could ask him not only about the mechanical engineering field, but also, specific things about Canadian culture, communication skills, and life in general. I consider I have been able to develop more confidence through this program and I feel somebody cares about me. I have learned from my mentor to be more organized, think in different ways, be engaged with the community, and prepare better for an interview.

Now that I have a different perspective by exploring a different path, I can see that it is possible to be engaged and use all the skills you have developed in your life and apply those to any career path you choose. I also learned from my mentor to include fun activities in my life, because studying and working are not all in life. I learned to set specific goals and work for them and to keep a positive mind, because every interview is an opportunity to be hired, but also, an opportunity to improve your skills and to train yourself for future interviews. I also have learned the importance of giving, I see how my mentor cares about every project and how professional he is. He has excellent time management skills and I am trying to follow his model.

I would totally recommend this program to every person who wants to make a significant impact on others’ lives and for mentees, this is the best opportunity to be guided and to find the best of you to become a better professional in Canada.

Click here to register for Canada InfoNet mentoring services.