From Mentee to Mentor: Steven Doolan Helping Young People Find Their Future

Steven Doolan understands the value and power in mentoring. As someone who has seen the benefits firsthand, receiving guidance and advice from his mentors, he is now giving back.

Doolan has just completed his first Onwards & Upwards program as a mentor at Inspiring Brighter Futures program at Hemmant Flexible School, and valued the experience in helping young people establishing their goals and in understanding their values.

A Senior DevOps Engineer with Flight Centre Travel Group’s corporate travel division, he first became aware of the mentoring program through the Flight Centre Foundation, which provides avenues for the company’s staff to give back to the community.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to improve my skills through my own mentors, and have also in turn been able to assist those working around me to go on to bigger and better things,” Doolan said.

“My role has changed where I now support various teams from a back-end systems point of view, and when this mentoring opportunity came up, I thought it would suit me.”

A notable mentor for himself has included James Kavanagh, Flight Centre Travel Group’s global leisure CEO, who was previously in charge of the corporate brands. He and Doolan had a shared love of running and Kavanagh would assume the role of mentor on one of their frequent runs.

“James would often talk to me whilst we were running,” Doolan said. “He would ask a question, I’d answer, he would then ask more questions and keep probing. By the end of the run, he would be smiling and happy having had a nice run and not having to talk much, and I had been talking solidly for half an hour. This was informal mentoring at its best and very valuable to me.” 

Doolan was recognised in Bangkok last month at Flight Centre’s annual global awards conference for Top Engineering Award APAC, Global Corporate Technology.

“This was very satisfying,” he said. “A number of things I’ve been incorporating personally and professionally over the last few years have worked out. I’ve been doing a bunch of things with AI and the benefits I’ve received from mentoring have definitely fed into it.

“During this mentoring program at Hemmant, when I heard someone mention IT, my ears immediately pricked up. I introduced myself and struck up a conversation with a student who was keen to pursue a career in IT, particularly in ethical hacking. That was a real highlight for me.

“I’ve spent a lot of time working in IT security and one of the key lessons I’ve learned is the importance of testing your own products by trying to hack them yourself.

“Cybersecurity is something I’m very passionate about because it’s such a critical part of protecting businesses and their customers.

“I was pleased to take on the role of IT career mentor for this student. We had a great discussion about the industry and the pathways available, and I made some notes and suggestions that I hope will help support their future career journey.”

He adds that he would like to continue mentoring in the future and said a nice bonus was that his wife Sharon was also one of the mentors in this program for Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation.

Reflecting on the mentoring sessions, Doolan also decided to work on his own values proposition and narrowed down his own values list into his Top Three.

He says, “Loyalty would be number one. I’ve been working for 21years at Flight Centre and been married for 21 years with two wonderful children. Resilience: when I fall down, I get up again, and Adventure – I love snowboarding, exploring, and trying new things.”

Onwards & Upwards is the flagship self-development program of the Inspiring Brighter Futures Foundation, designed to support young people and adults in need.

The Foundation plans to hold over 80 programs in 2026 in Queensland, with its more than 600 active volunteer mentors focusing on its core groups of young people facing challenges, emerging student leaders, and job seekers.

To learn more or donate, visit: inspiringbrighterfutures.com
ENDS media enquiries to Brenton Gibbs 0419 828 440 [email protected]