Mentoring for Better Decisions: Careers, Enterprise and What Comes Next

Sometimes you don’t need another course, another qualification or another list of things you could do.

You need space to work through a decision with someone who can ask useful questions, challenge your thinking and help you decide what to do next.

That is how I approach mentoring.

Through my work with university students, graduates, founders and professionals, I have seen how easily someone’s experience and ability can become buried beneath uncertainty about how to use it.

A graduate may struggle to explain the commercial value of their portfolio. A founder may have several promising ideas but no clear route to a viable offer. An experienced professional may want to change direction without knowing how to position the expertise they already have.

These are different situations. They deserve different conversations.

Connecting ambition with practical decisions

My mentoring draws on my experience across business strategy, entrepreneurship, digital transformation, technology, innovation and AI, alongside university enterprise teaching and founder support.

That breadth helps me connect questions that are often treated separately.

A conversation about a career move might reveal that someone needs stronger evidence of their contribution. A discussion about starting a consultancy might uncover a gap in their understanding of buyers, pricing or delivery. A question about AI tools might lead us back to the work they actually want to do.

The aim is to understand the situation before recommending a route forward.

For some people, that means identifying a realistic next step. For others, it means challenging a plan they have already invested considerable time in.

What we can work through together

Depending on your circumstances, mentoring can help you:

Make sense of your experience: identify relevant skills, examples and achievements, then explain their value clearly.
Explore a career transition: assess possible directions, identify gaps and decide what evidence or experience to build next.
Develop an enterprise idea: examine the problem, intended customer, offer and assumptions that need testing.
Prepare for consultancy: connect your expertise to a specific client need and consider how you would deliver the work.
Strengthen your professional communication: improve how you present your work through portfolios, applications, interviews and business conversations.
Understand technology and AI choices: consider where tools could support your goals, what limitations matter and where your judgement remains essential.

The starting point is your context. The outcome should be a clearer decision and something practical you can act on.

What mentees have valued

My work with students and graduates has included mentoring, enterprise conversations, portfolio feedback and career development support through the University of the Arts London, including London College of Communication.

Reflecting on her experience, Julia Pitulska described our mentoring session as:

“Both energising and insightful.”

Another UAL graduate shared this reflection after putting our discussion into practice:

“I’ve reflected on our discussions, executed active communication, and I’ve grown. I hope we meet again.”

That follow-through matters to me. A useful conversation should give someone something they can apply after the session ends.

Luminita Molico, Graduate Engagement Manager at UAL, described my contribution in these terms:

“Katrina has enhanced the knowledge and skills of our students, helping them develop successful careers or launch their own enterprises.”

Sometimes progress means doing less

One of the most useful outcomes of mentoring can be deciding what to stop pursuing.

Another qualification may not resolve an unclear career direction. Building a website may be premature if you have not established who would buy your service. Adding AI to a process may create more checking and administration than it saves.

These decisions can be uncomfortable, particularly when time or money has already been invested.

Sunk cost bias can keep us attached to a route because we have worked hard on it. Confirmation bias can lead us to seek encouragement when we would benefit from a challenge.

A mentor should help you examine those assumptions respectfully and make a decision based on your current circumstances.

That might mean narrowing your focus, testing an idea on a smaller scale or recognising that you already have enough experience to take the next step.

Support that takes your circumstances seriously

People make career and business decisions alongside financial responsibilities, caring commitments, health needs and limited time.

Those circumstances affect what is achievable and sustainable.

I want to understand the conditions someone is working within, because advice only becomes useful when it can be applied in their life.

Confidence can grow through that process: identifying what you know, recognising what remains uncertain and taking a manageable step that produces new evidence.