It’s hard to believe it’s still summer. In contrast, the IT industry is still going through a severe slump. During times like these, I often get questions about my career or my future. When that happens, I tell them to close their eyes and joke that that is my future, half-jokingly and half-seriously. I’d like to give them a plausible answer, but honestly, I don’t even know what I’ll eat for my next meal.

While I was feeling this way, I learned about the Mentoring Program. I applied with a “go big or go home” mindset, and fortunately, I was selected to participate. I’d like to share a brief review.

What is the Mentoring Program?

This program, run by KOSA for young professionals working at SMEs, provides support like mentoring, career design assistance, and Inflearn courses. I don’t know if this kind of initiative existed back in the day, but I recall the sad memory of going to seminars and conferences and having to play a waiting game just to talk to someone for a single coffee chat. The queue was so long when you really wanted to ask a question. People used to say Koreans don’t ask many questions, but back then, everyone lined up to ask. I don’t go often these days, but it’s surprising when I think back to recent seminars or conferences. Come to think of it, maybe the events I attended back then were just very popular.

Anyway, you don’t have to do that anymore. If you participate in this program, you can easily get career advice from mentors who are active in various companies.

Some junior colleagues similar to me wanted to join the program together to have a coffee chat, but you don’t need to do that. You can now say goodbye to the days when sharing information among juniors only increased your confusion.

When applying for the program, you write down your preferred mentor, and they match you. From what I’ve seen around me, most people were matched with their first-choice mentor. This is just my limited sample size, so it might be a generalization error.

I don’t know much about the Job Seeker Track, but I vaguely remember hearing that if you get a job during your participation, you can switch to the Working Professional Track and continue to participate. If you’re interested, you can check the official website.

My Short Impression

I’ve had two mentoring sessions through this program so far. Thanks to Mentor Won Hyoung Lee from LINE Plus, I was able to ask all the questions I’d been curious about but had nowhere to go, from big ones to trivial ones, and get answers. (I received permission to mention this.)

Since I ask and talk a lot, I always significantly exceed the mentoring time to the point of renewing the record each time. I feel sorry for messing up the mentor’s schedule every time, but off the record, I’m also happy that my curiosity is satisfied, which gives me a Jekyll-and-Hyde feeling.

Thank you so much for willingly making time and giving sincere answers every time. I’ve received a lot of help, am currently receiving help, and plan to continue receiving help because of you. Through this post, I want to thank the mentor once again, and I hope you understand the deep regret that I can’t fully express my gratitude in words.

I had rarely seen a program like this targeting working young professionals. It was great that they support not only job seekers but also those who are already working. Would it be ungrateful of me to wish for more programs like this so I could be even happier?

I haven’t even put this much effort into my assignments, but I’ve tried to express the benefit of the program in this review with a grateful heart. When I participated, the conference application was already closed, so I didn’t have any photos. This was the best I could do with only text.

The industry is in a slump, and the economy is in a recession, making for some rough thoughts these days, but I hope everyone stays strong and utilizes programs like this. Best of luck and be happy, everyone!