- What are your short-term goals?
- What are your long-term goals?
- What interested you about having a mentor?
- What areas of your life do you want to grow in?
- What skills do you want to develop?
- If you could go back in time, would you choose a different career?
A mentor and mentee relationship can be beneficial to both parties. Having a mentor can provide resources and guidance in future decisions, and having a mentee can allow you to practice leadership and communication. If you’re a mentor to someone else, it can be helpful to know a few questions to ask your mentee during mentoring sessions to guide conversation and help find areas for you to help. In this article, we define what a mentor is and consider 9 questions that a mentor might ask their mentee during a mentoring session.
Mentee interview – James Thacker
Tell me how you would train me to do [industry-related task].
An interviewer may ask this behavioral question to learn more about your training style. They may ask you how you would train them to do a common industry-related task, or some interviewers may ask you how you would train someone to do an everyday task, such as tying your shoes or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Be thorough in your explanation, and discuss your approach and your step-by-step instructions.
Example: “If I had to train you how to you how to create a newsletter and email it to our clients, I would begin by explaining the platform we use and walking you through the most important tools for your task. I would show you how to add each element and discuss who is responsible for providing each element, such as the graphic designer or copywriter. I would make an entire newsletter to demonstrate the entire process and provide examples for you to see how your newsletter should look before you send it.
One thing thats important to me is to check for understanding, especially by asking you questions during my explanation. After I finish my demonstration, I would ask you to create your own example newsletter to verify you understood my training. As a future resource, I would save our emails as training drafts in the software for you to reference if needed.”
Examples of mentoring interview questions and answers
Here are some examples of common mentoring interview questions with example answers to help you develop your own responses:
Tell me about a mentor you had in your life.
An interviewer may ask you about mentors in your life to learn more about you. This question may also help them learn more about what motivated you to be a mentor. Discuss who the mentor was, your relationship with them and what you learned from them.
Example: “When I was in college, I was fortunate that one of my professors became my mentor. He taught one of my most difficult courses my junior year, and we developed a relationship because I frequently attended his office hours for help. He helped me develop my skills, and his guidance and recommendations helped me land my internship that led to my first post-graduate job.
One of the most important things I learned from him was the value of consistency. There were times I felt I would never master the concepts for the course, but he refused to give up on me. I now apply this same level of commitment to my mentees, ensuring they feel supported.”
What is your dream job?
This question can tell a mentor about their mentees goals and passions. Considering their dream job is a great way for a mentee to explore their interests and identify what theyre most passionate about. This can help a mentor design their advice and support around finding opportunities for their mentee that align with their interests by offering guidance on how a mentee might pursue their dream job or a closely related career.
Have you ever quit a job? If so, why?
This question can tell a mentor about their mentees values and what they look for in a workplace. If a mentee identifies a specific challenge at one of their previous jobs that caused them to leave their position, a mentor might try to help them find employment opportunities that do not involve the challenge or have a solution in place for it. For example, if a mentee quit their previous job because the hours were too long, a mentor might search for a job in their field that offers flexible or shorter work hours.
What do you hope to gain from our mentoring sessions?
A mentor might ask this question at the beginning of a mentoring relationship to get an understanding of why their mentee might need a mentor. A mentees answer can tell a mentor about a specific personal goal, a career path they want to pursue, a skill set they want to develop and more. Some mentees might not be completely sure about their answer, which can also help a mentor by informing them that a mentee might need support in finding areas where they can improve or learn more about.
Mentor Questions and How They Work
These questions are divided into two main categories: questions for mentors and questions for mentees. While some of the questions repeat in both groups, the questions to ask your mentor are different in nature than the questions to ask your mentee.
As you can see, the questions are also organized into themed lists. While the order of these lists doesn’t matter, there are some themes – such as “getting to know each other” and “establishing expectations” – that should be addressed earlier in the relationship.
Everyone’s mentorship relationship looks different, and they all will vary in regard to formality, specificity, and time commitments. Fortunately, these questions can help any type of mentoring session go from average to extraordinary.
Questions to Ask Your Mentor – Establishing Expectations
QUESTIONS FOR YOUR MENTOR:
Bonus question which works both ways:
What’s keeping you busy at the moment?
This question will help determine the priorities of the other person. What are they focusing on? Are the causes of their busy-ness out of their control, or are their priorities off track?
What are your go-to questions for a mentoring session? Let me know in the comments!
Want an easy, printable version of this list? Download here.
Shout out to the mentors I have been grateful to be partnered with in the past:
Elizabeth Fudge, Susan Mann, Kirsty Hammet.
And the many amazing leaders I have been privileged to work with.
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FAQ
How do I prepare for a mentee interview?
What are good mentoring questions?
- How and where do you find inspiration?
- What values are you committed to? …
- What is your biggest fear, and have you overcome it? …
- Why did you decide to be a mentor, and what are your goals for our relationship?
- What do you enjoy doing during non-work hours?
What qualities make a good mentee?
- Growing their leadership skills.
- Developing a reputation as an advisor and guide for others.
- Strengthening their emotional intelligence and communication skills.
- Gaining new perspectives.
