7 Questions to Ask Your Professional Mentor
A few months back, I wrote this post on questions to ask your spiritual mentor, and I wanted to do a follow-up on questions to ask a professional mentor!
A professional mentor is someone in your field — hopefully at least one is a woman and at least one is 20+ years older than you — that you meet with regularly to learn from and process your career with. She’s not necessarily your sponsor (someone who will go to bat for you when you’re looking for career advancement) but she’s got lots of wisdom and experience to offer while you navigate your career.
Here are some starter questions to ask your mentor:
“What should I be learning or educating myself in?”
This is also an awesome question to ask your boss. If you want to level up, you have to gain some skills to get you there—what do those skills need to be? What does your mentor think is valuable for you to learn, either from library books or a Master’s degree?
“What’s a career moment you’re proud of?”
Or any question that gets her to brag on herself. Your mentor has clearly made some big moves in her career, and you’ll wanna hear about them, both for the value it offers you and because I bet she has seen some stuff.
What did she ask for in boldness? What job did she walk out of? Where did she move to on a whim? How does she see the pieces of her career all tied together?
“What do you wish all women knew about working in this field?”
In any field, there’s likely a gendered difference. This doesn’t have to be negative, but your mentor has been around the block a few times and knows what it’s like to be a woman in your field, and maybe even in your company.
What keeps women from getting promoted? What feminine characteristics helped her succeed?
“What should I be learning from your generation? What have you learned from mine?”
Y’all. You need to be having intergenerational conversations. You need to be showing up thinking the best of your elders. They’ve been doing this longer than you, they have something extremely valuable to offer—ask this with genuine curiosity. She’ll tell you about tenacity, patience, and respect. Trust me, you want these lessons.
Also, ask them what they’re learning from your generation! Millennials and Gen Z have some incredible qualities that older generations can appreciate and learn from. Ask her what good she’s been seeing in your generation, and thank her for it. Even if (when) she tells you some generational blindspots, thank her for those, too. Remember she has your best interest at heart.