A mentor can be a key role for your career development. Always come to your meetings with your mentor prepared for a conversation. Be open and honest with your mentor, and always be willing to listen and learn. Make sure your conversations stay fresh by focusing on the four main types of questions:
- Stories from their career or life
- Feedback to increase your self-awareness
- Advice or guidance about a situation you are going through
- Advice or guidance about skills you want to build
Introductory Questions
- Do you have a mentor? What was the best advice they gave you?
- What is one thing you wish you had known when you were just starting out in your career?
- How did you get to your current position? Is this where you thought you’d end up?
- Book recommendations for professional development (or podcasts and other media)
- Where do you get your news – industry and otherwise?
Resume and Career Goals
- Would you mind taking a look at my resume?
- What do you look for in a resume?
- What are your best interview tips?
- What skills do I need to be able to advance in my career?
- What is the best advice you can give to help plan a career long-term?
- What have been the highlights of your career so far?
- What would you do differently if given the opportunity?
Developing strengths and overcoming weaknesses
- How would you recommend I develop my strengths?
- What are your biggest strengths? How do you build them?
- What skills do I need to be able to advance in my career?
- What are your best tips for overcoming weaknesses?
- What is one thing you still struggle with?
- What was the most difficult challenge you had to overcome?
Core Values
- What are your personal core values?
- What do you consider your number one priority?
- What are you most proud of? What do you consider your greatest achievement?
- How do you spend your time outside of the office?
Leadership
- How do you define leadership?
- What is the difference between a manager and a leader?
- Is there someone who you consider a strong leader who may not be in a management position?
- What qualities does an effective leader have?
- What makes an exceptional leader?
- What is the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
- How do you decide which risks to take?
- How do you keep your personal feelings from clouding your decision making?
Management skills
- What skills do you think are necessary to be an effective manager?
- What do you find is the most effective way to manage people or projects?
- What is the most effective way to develop a direct report?
- How do you decide what to delegate?
- What do you think is the importance of giving credit to others?
- Have you encountered challenges when working with or managing different kinds of personalities?
Time management and prioritizing
- What is your biggest time management tip? Time-saving technique?
- How do you decide when to say “no”?
- How have you developed helpful habits? Broken time-wasting habits?
- What are some areas where you want to increase efficiency?
- How do you balance your work and home life?
- What do you do to keep learning and growing?
Communication
- What types of communication do you use most often? (Email, phone, face-to-face)
- What was your worst communication blunder?
- What is one thing I should never say?
- How do you weigh or prioritize meeting with colleagues in person versus communicating via phone or email? When are each most valuable?
- How do you establish lines of communication with colleagues and reports? How do you keep
- those lines open?
- How do you navigate discussions with people who have different communication styles
Relationship building and networking
- Who has influenced you the most?
- Is there anyone you’d recommend I meet in or outside the firm?
- What qualities do you look for in people you spend time with?
- Do you have any tips for networking/building professional relationships?
- What challenges have you faced when establishing relationships with colleagues?
- What is the most difficult challenge of working with a team?
- How do you work with people who have different personalities?
- Can you tell me about a time you had a difficult boss? How did you handle it?
Organizational change
- How do you encourage innovative ideas from others?
- What do you do to learn about what an area needs?
- How do you overcome resistance to change?
- How do you develop a strategic direction?
- What are your best tips for establishing yourself in a new area?
- How do you navigate technical, political, and/or cultural problems?