Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals
Before or at the start of each meeting with their mentors, mentees should draft an agenda to share. Preparing an agenda forces the mentee to carefully consider the importance of various topics.
As a mentee, you are responsible for determining the topics to be discussed. The agenda will help your mentor keep discussions on track. Send the agenda in advance to allow a mentor to plan ahead for the discussion.
Agendas need not be complicated or too detailed. (See Figure 1.) Think about agendas as a discussion of the past, present, and future:
- Begin With the Past to Review/Update Your Mentor About a Previous Discussion—Provide feedback to your mentor about the usefulness of his or her advice.
- Move to the Present—Introduce the meeting topic. One topic is sufficient as long as you prepare in advance (e.g., research, draft questions).
- Discuss the Future—At the end of a meeting, confirm the date and time for the next get-together and note any topics you’d like to defer or continue to discuss at the next meeting.
Remember, the goal is not to get your mentor to solve your problems or provide answers. Use the mentor
meetings as an opportunity to seek advice and guidance. Keep this in mind as you craft your agendas for
each mentor meeting.
Figure 1: Sample agenda for a mentor/mentee meeting
| Agenda Template |
Mentoring Meeting
Names of Participants
Date – Time |
| I. |
Update: Report on last week’s issue |
| II. |
Today’s topic to be discussed |
| III. |
Next meeting (determine next date) |
Source: Being a Successful Mentee: A Guide for Career Services and URR Professionals, National Association of Colleges and Employers
Being a Successful Mentee: A Guide for Career Services and URR Professionals, written by Diane Safer of Yeshiva University, is available on NACEWeb.