Do you remember László Márton’s (BA student from the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania) first blog post about the beginning of his mentorship period? Now you can have another sneak peek into his foRMAtion mentee life in Porto, at SPI – Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação.

Read his report about how he is settling in a foreign country as a Research Management and Administration mentee. Find out what tasks he is involved in at his workplace and how he spends his free time!

27 July 2022

The last two weeks have had a totally different pace and energy. Not because the first week had not been good but, at the beginning, everything was new and strange. I had to get used to the new environment and the new people. Fortunately, the people around were very open. They accepted me and invited me to join them in their after-work plans. This way, my second and third weeks were full of good vibes and nice adventures. I have visited many places in the city, such as historical buildings, squares and good bars as well.

At the same time, my work at SPI has become more and more serious. I was involved in several projects. Of course, being a mentee, my involvment was limited in depth since I am still learning how the processes work here. But through my tasks and by working together with my co-workers, I am learning how the different steps of a project are built. For example, I learnt how to use the graphic design platform Canva to design a deliverable element and a project flyer. It was a fun and interesting activity and I enjoyed it.

László Márton

I found nice people and a lot of opportunities for self-development, and not just on the professional level, but also on a personal one because of contact with new, more experienced, friends and co-workers.

Another important part of the job is that, as a project coordinator, you must have a clear view and knowledge of your online impact on different social media platforms. You must gather the analytical data related to your posts. This is another task that I was appointed in relation to the MIRRI project (collection of all available information about microbiology in one big database).  In addition, I was given some other tasks as well like sending emails and searching for a potential partner. I also got from my mentor, Tiago, a proposal with an evaluation to understand how a proposal should be written. I found nice people and a lot of opportunities for self-development, and not just on the professional level, but also on a personal one because of contact with new, more experienced, friends and co-workers.

I had the lucky chance to visit the city of Guimarães which was the first Portuguese city. Being so, it has many beautiful and valuable monuments and medieval buildings.

If you are interested in the foRMAtion Mentorship Programme, please have a look at the Methodological Guide for the Mentorship Programme!