Questions To Ask Your New Mentee | Career Angles
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A new mentee has approached you. What can you ask them to determine whether you are interested in mentoring them?
I want to talk to those of you are in the process of taking on a new mentee and getting to ask them questions that will allow you to figure out where the work is for you, what the relationship can be built on, things along those lines.
I want to preface this by saying, start by getting to know them and their background –where they grew up, where they’ve lived, what their parents are or were like. This is all stuff that they can talk about.
How did they choose this career? What is it about this career that they really are interested in? Then, from there, let’s get to some of the practical questions of the mentor- mentee relationship.
“Why did you choose me as your mentor?”
“Well, you were assigned to me.”
“Any particular reason why you can think of why I was assigned to you?”
“No.”
‘Okay,” and that tells you basically, you’re a blank slate to them.
Which areas do you think I might help you or give you some perspective?
Tell me about some of your current professional goals.
What skills or experiences have you excelled in?
What additional education, experience or skills do you feel you need to achieve in order to accomplish your goals?
What are some areas that you would like to improve upon?
Lastly, what does your current professional network look like?
These are all questions that give you a launch point as you get to know your new mentee and, to me, the most important one is why did you select me as your mentor? What was it about me that made you come to me as a mentee.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1900 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches 
Council.
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