Soft skills upgraded during mentorship: Meliha and Mustafa

We are proud to cooperate with one of the biggest IT companies in our country – Mistral. Cooperation with them means a lot to our Foundation, as we will work together on significant projects in the future. (Stay tuned.) Content & Communication Specialist from Mistral, Mustafa Šuvalija, is a mentor in our new Mentorship Program where he works with his mentee Meliha Dejkić to develop her engineering and soft skills so she could pursue her career in IT. In the following few paragraphs, you will be able to read the mentorship experience written by Meliha:

“As a second-year student at the Faculty of Information Technologies in Mostar, I have been making good progress in my studies. However, I realized I needed to gain more knowledge in areas not necessarily covered by the curriculum, but which are still critical for future career success. This is why I welcomed the opportunity provided by the Mentorship program started by Bosnia and Herzegovina Futures Foundation in cooperation with Market Makers. and why Mustafa and I immediately set off on the right foot, as we shared the same problem-solving oriented mindset.

After four months, I feel I have made important progress in different areas of the so-called "soft skills". I have learned to structure my time and balance learning with leisure. I have worked on and improved my self-confidence and learned to give feedback without fear of conflict or rejection. I've learned how to prepare for interviews, both practically and psychologically. I've also developed a better understanding of the way I want my career to develop and started taking steps to develop my skills in line with this.

However, the most important benefit of our work so far was the mindset-changing insight about prioritizing learning as a goal. I realized that, if I perceived every challenge ahead of me as primarily a learning opportunity, I would find success in every outcome. This has done a great deal to relieve my anxiety about many previously stressful situations. Now I feel more excited than worried about new challenges that come my way.

Mustafa and I are still meeting regularly (every two weeks, via Skype) and tackling problems together. Our communication has always been open and relaxed, yet effective. We still haven't had the chance to meet in person, but once the quarantine restrictions are lifted, we're planning to arrange it as well.”

We are very happy to hear this another successful story, that was born in our new mentorship program. We congratulate to Mustafa and Meliha and wish them a lot of success in their further work. Stay tuned for more success stories! ;)