Trevor Crawford supported me a lot when I was a research fellow and when I became a lecturer, even though he was not my line manager or official mentor. He helped me develop a better understanding of the skills needed to be a successful academic: not just the technical aspects, but the social. He is always open to long chats about psychological theory and methodology. He is also very supportive at a personal level and has good advice on work-life balance. We started collaborating on student projects first and our work grew from there. We are now co-supervisors on two NWSSDTP funded PhD studentships, submitted a grant proposal, have one paper published and are working on several others. Not bad for a collaboration that started with Trevor just asking what my work was on, when I was a fresh-faced research fellow!