At Graduate Mentor, our mission is to empower students and recent graduates by connecting them with experienced professionals who can provide guidance, support, and real-world insights. One of our proudest moments is watching mentees grow into confident, capable professionals, and sometimes even mentors themselves.
Jen Brogan’s journey exemplifies this transformation. Beginning her mentee experience in the uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jen sought clarity and confidence in her career path. Today, she is a respected journalist making her mark in the healthcare reporting space. Her story reminds us that the right support at the right time can change everything…
“It’s 2020 – right in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic – and I’m in my second year of university at Plymouth studying English and Creative Writing. I turn to my friend for advice out of fear that I wasn’t doing enough to gain experience as a journalist to stand out to employers. And that’s when she suggested the mentoring programme.
The mentoring programme was the first step I made to making sure I was exploiting every possible opportunity I could before I finished my degree.
My mentor, Nina Franck, despite not specifically working in the exact same area I aspired to, taught me such valuable insights when navigating my career path. I learnt how to demonstrate my confidence and fine-tune my CVs and interview skills, as well as receiving great encouragement to do something amazing, despite it being a little bit scary – like applying for my master’s, which I went on to complete in 2023.
Since finishing my studies, I have followed a path and ended up in places in my career that I would never have predicted. I’ve proved to myself that ‘I can’ even when I was worried I couldn’t. I’ve continued to improve and enhance my skills, which are still ever-growing. But most importantly, I’ve made the 20-something-year-old who was feeling a bit lost seeking advice from her friend very proud.
I truly believe without this experience, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Jen Brogan is a London-based reporter focused on healthcare market news and policy developments emerging from the U.S., UK and EU. She previously reported on the pharma industry and healthcare communications at PMLiVE and PharmaTimes before joining APM Market Access in 2024. She graduated from the University of Plymouth in 2022 (BA in English and Creative Writing) and the University of Portsmouth in 2023 (MA in Journalism).
