Building a Personal Definition of Mentorship
An online talk delivered by Brian Dys Sahagun during the JPSSITE PACE LEVEL-UP V.7.1 (with KadaKareer) on 16 Sep 2026
Source: JPSSITE LCUP Facebook page
Intro
Sophia (JPSSITE LCUP): Now that we are all energized, let’s move on to our first talk this morning. It is my honor to introduce our first resource speaker, a line manager and designer for the design system of a global fintech company. His role also involves recruitment, where he reviews applications and conducts interviews. Beyond his professional work, he is passionate about giving back to the community and actively volunteers as a mentor to both aspiring and experienced designers in UX and product design.
Everyone, please welcome Koach Dys.
Dys: Thank you, Sophia, for that introduction. A pleasant morning to everyone, KadaKareer team and JPSSITE LCUP. I hope you’re all fueled up for this morning’s session.
As Sophia mentioned, I am Koach Dys, Principal Designer at Avaloq, a global fintech company, and today we’re talking about the one cheat code that can completely make a difference in your career: Mentorship and building your own definition of it.
Career Journey and The Value of Mentorship
Before we talk about mentors, let’s define what we’re actually building here. Your career isn’t just a sequence of jobs or random gigs after graduation. It’s the lifelong journey of building your professional identity, aligning your skills with your purpose, and continuously growing.
And why does preparing for this matter right now, while you’re still in college? Because the habits, networks, and foundations you build today compound tomorrow.
I wouldn’t be here without mentors who challenged my thinking and gave me real-world reality checks. They didn’t just teach me technical craft; they taught me how to collaborate, handle failure, and build resilience when a project completely fails. Now, sitting on the mentoring side and seeing that ‘lightbulb’ moment click for a mentee makes all the effort worth it.
When facing specific career decisions — such as transitioning from school-focused project to design or engineering paths — a mentor can help you identify gaps and navigate your path. As Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz state in One Minute Mentoring: “When you have a problem to solve, talking about it is a good first step.”
Having a mentor gives you a support system of people who’ve already experienced that part of your journey and are entirely invested in helping you succeed in yours.
Bottom line: you don’t have to figure it all out alone. An outsider’s perspective through a mentor can help guide you when you need it most.
Four Pillars of Mentorship
What is a mentor? Simply put: a mentor is an experienced guide who invests in your professional and personal growth, and mentorship is that dynamic, trusting relationship where they share their wisdom, challenge your assumptions, and help you navigate your path. A good mentorship has four pillars:
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Psychosocial Support: Encouraging you, building your confidence, and acting as a sounding board when you hit roadblocks.
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Career Guidance: Helping you discover your goals, weigh options, and map out your professional path.
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Skill Development: Educating, evaluating, and actively challenging you to level up your technical and professional abilities.
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Sponsorship: Using influence to advocate for your work, highlight your wins, and open doors to new opportunities, such as supporting and sharing your work on professional networks like LinkedIn.
The catch? You’ve got to drop the ego and get vulnerable. To fix your blind spots, you first have to figure out: Where are you right now?
The 5/20 Formula
To figure out where you stand, we’re going to use a modified version of Robin Sharma’s framework (Robin Sharma is a writer and motivational speaker). We’re going to break down your career life into five equal 20% chunks: Direction, Workplace, Technical Skills, Self-Management, and Barriers. Think of this as your diagnostic tool before seeking a mentor.
1. Sense of Direction
First up: Sense of Direction. Saan ang gusto mong patunguhan ng iyong career? How certain are you about your path right now? As IT students, it’s easy to feel pulled in a million directions — do you want to do DevOps, Cybersecurity, Full-Stack Development, UI/UX Design like me, or maybe dive into AI engineering?
Ask yourself: Are you sure your current track is the best fit, or do you need an outsider’s perspective to see where you’ll actually thrive? For example, you might be finishing a degree in IT, but you realize you spend all your free time tinkering with video editing or graphic design layout. Do you stick strictly to software engineering, or do you find a hybrid path? That’s where you bring a mentor in and ask: “Are there careers where I can mix technical logic with creative design?”
2. Workplace
Next, let’s talk about Workplace. Saan mo gustong magtrabaho para maging pinaka-epektibo? Once you know what you want to do, you need to decide where you want to do it to operate at your highest level (or maybe to have the most fun — it can be both). Do you thrive in a fast-paced startup where things break fast, or do you prefer the steady, structured environment of a large enterprise corporate setup? You might not have the whole career picture figured out yet, and that’s fine, but you might know this in your head: “I want to work somewhere that genuinely invests in junior developer growth.” Your question to a mentor then becomes: “Have you worked at companies that actually care about employee well-being, and which ones should I look out for?”
3. Technical Skills
Moving on: Technical Skills. Ano ang mga skills na kaya mong gawin nang mahusay? This is your core competency — what you actually do well. In a team programming project, what roles do you naturally gravitate toward or volunteer for? Are you the database architect, the front-end wizard, or the one who steps up to debug everyone else’s mess? At the same time, look honestly at what’s missing. If you want to build a specific career, what technical gaps do you have? For instance, maybe you’ve spent a lot of time self-studying frontend frameworks, but you want to master design systems. You find a mentor who’s a senior dev and ask them how they bridged that exact technical gap.
4. Self-Management Skills
The fourth one is Self-Management Skills. Paano mo dinidisiplina ang sarili mo? This is all about how you conduct yourself. Are you resourceful and organized, or do you constantly miss project deadlines and scramble the night before a submission? Are you punctual, or are you always rushing? You may be great with your technical skills, but struggle with personal organization. If that’s you, your goal with a mentor isn’t just about reviewing your portfolio; it’s asking: “How do you manage your projects, your time, and your backlog so you don’t burn out or drop the ball?”
5. Barriers
Finally, the last 20%: Your Barriers. Ano’ng mga hadlang ang pumipigil sa’yong pag-usad? These are the physical, attitudinal, or social blocks in your way — some within your control, some completely outside of it. Is your family skeptical about your choice of career? Are you battling imposter syndrome or a lack of motivation? Sometimes, the roadblock isn’t technical; it’s external or psychological. A great mentor can help you navigate those conversations, build your confidence, or give you advice on how to handle tricky situations.
Conclusion
To wrap this up: mentorship isn’t just about finding someone to hand you all the answers. It’s about finding someone to help you ask the right questions using frameworks like the 5/20 formula.
Thank you, KadaKareer and JPSSITE LCUP, and let’s keep leveling up together!