Everything you need before your first session.
Forty-three short guides, written for people who are good at their job and new to mentoring. Read the first four and you are ready to take a match. The rest you can pick up as you go.
- Guides
- 40
- Average read
- 3 minutes
- Session length
- 30 minutes
The short path to your first match.
If you only have fifteen minutes, these four cover everything you need to run a session that helps someone.
How mentoring works here: the shape of a 30-minute session
Your first session: a minute-by-minute structure
Asking better questions: how to find the real problem fast
Safeguarding basics: the rules that protect the mentee and you
Mentoring makes you better at your day job.
Mentoring is not only a good deed: it sharpens the coaching, feedback and communication skills your own job runs on, and gives you dated evidence of leadership for your next appraisal.
You get better at managing people
Thirty minutes of listening, asking and giving honest feedback is the same skill set your team needs from you every week. Mentors practise it on purpose, with someone who is not in their reporting line.
Evidence for your next promotion
Mentoring is leadership you can point at in an appraisal. Every session is logged, so you have dated hours, topics and feedback rather than a vague claim that you develop people.
You explain your work more clearly
Saying what you do to somebody outside your company strips out the jargon. Mentors come back sharper in interviews, pitches, client calls and internal presentations.
You stay close to the market
You hear what people entering your industry are being taught, what they expect from an employer and where they are getting stuck. That is useful the next time you hire.
Your network grows outside your employer
Sessions run across 43 countries, so you meet people and see teams far outside your usual circle without a conference ticket or a commute.
It counts at work, not just outside it
Volunteering hours are recorded and reportable, so your employer can count them towards learning, people development and social impact targets.
The full course
Four modules, 40 guides. Search for what you need, or filter by module, tag, and how much mentoring experience the guide assumes.
Module
Experience level
Tags
40 guides in the course.
Getting started · New to mentoring
What the session is, how to set yourself up, and what to do in your first half hour.
- Read this guide4 min
How mentoring works here
One session, 30 minutes, no ongoing commitment unless you want one.
- Session basics
- Getting matched
- Read this guide4 min
Your first session
A structure for 30 minutes that works even when you are nervous.
- Session basics
- Structure
- Confidence
- Read this guide3 min
Writing a mentor profile
Say what you do now, plainly, so the right mentee finds you.
- Getting matched
- Writing
- Read this guide3 min
Preparing for a session
Ten minutes of preparation is the difference between advice and small talk.
- Session basics
- Structure
- Read this guide3 min
Running the session online
Video changes how you listen, how you pause, and how you close.
- Video and tech
- Session basics
- Read this guide3 min
Choosing which mentees to take
Say yes to the matches you can genuinely help, and decline the rest early.
- Getting matched
- Boundaries
- Read this guide3 min
Setting up your camera and sound
Five minutes of setup buys you thirty minutes people can actually follow.
- Video and tech
- Read this guide3 min
Mentoring when you are early in your own career
Two years ahead is often more useful than twenty.
- Confidence
- Practice
- Read this guide4 min
Mentoring a student with no work experience
What to talk about when there is no CV to work from.
- Careers advice
- Confidence
- Structure
Core skills · Building the craft
The five things every good session is made of: questions, listening, feedback, goals and plain explanation.
- Read this guide4 min
Asking better questions
The question you ask in minute four decides how useful minute twenty is.
- Questions
- Listening
- Read this guide3 min
Listening properly
Most mentees have never had a professional listen to them for half an hour.
- Listening
- Questions
- Read this guide4 min
Giving useful feedback
Direct and kind are not opposites.
- Feedback
- Difficult conversations
- Read this guide3 min
Setting a goal in 30 minutes
One action, this week, that they can actually do.
- Structure
- Goals
- Read this guide3 min
Explaining your industry
Your ordinary knowledge is the rarest thing you have.
- Careers advice
- Structure
- Read this guide4 min
Helping with a CV in half an hour
Fix the top third, name three changes, stop.
- CVs and applications
- Careers advice
- Read this guide4 min
Interview practice in 30 minutes
Two questions, answered properly, beat ten rushed ones.
- Interviews
- Careers advice
- Read this guide4 min
Talking about pay and negotiation
Give ranges and process, not a number you cannot stand behind.
- Pay
- Careers advice
- Read this guide3 min
Helping someone choose between two options
Your job is a clearer decision, not your preferred answer.
- Goals
- Careers advice
- Read this guide3 min
Networking advice that actually works
Replace "build your network" with one message they send tomorrow.
- Networking
- Careers advice
- Read this guide4 min
Helping someone change career
Turning a vague “I want out” into a testable first move.
- Careers advice
- Goals
- Read this guide4 min
Improving an online professional profile
Fifteen minutes on a profile that recruiters actually search.
- Networking
- Writing
- Careers advice
Harder conversations · Experienced
Silence, distress, questions outside your knowledge, and mentoring someone in another country.
- Read this guide3 min
When you do not know the answer
"I do not know" is a complete and respectable sentence.
- Confidence
- Difficult conversations
- Read this guide4 min
Holding boundaries
Generous inside the session, clear outside it.
- Boundaries
- Difficult conversations
- Read this guide4 min
When emotions come up
Redundancy, rejection and burnout arrive in career conversations. Be ready.
- Wellbeing
- Difficult conversations
- Read this guide3 min
Mentees who do not engage
One-word answers usually mean nerves, not indifference.
- Difficult conversations
- Listening
- Read this guide4 min
Mentoring across borders
Your advice was formed in one labour market. Say which one.
- Global mentoring
- Listening
- Read this guide4 min
Telling someone a hard truth
Say the difficult thing early, plainly, and with a route forward.
- Difficult conversations
- Feedback
- Read this guide3 min
When a mentee wants a job from you
Be clear about what you can and cannot do, in the first five minutes.
- Boundaries
- Careers advice
- Read this guide4 min
Mentoring someone after redundancy
Steady the ground first, then work on the next thirty days.
- Wellbeing
- Careers advice
- Read this guide3 min
When the session goes off track
Notice at minute ten, not minute twenty-eight.
- Structure
- Difficult conversations
- Read this guide4 min
Mentoring someone after a rejection
Separating the decision from the person, then getting back to work.
- Wellbeing
- Difficult conversations
- Interviews
Mentoring well, long term · Experienced
Safeguarding, confidentiality, bias, follow-through, and getting better session by session.
- Read this guide4 min
Safeguarding basics
What to do, immediately, if something concerns you.
- Safeguarding
- Rules and policy
- Read this guide3 min
Confidentiality and data
What is said in the session stays in the session, with two exceptions.
- Rules and policy
- Safeguarding
- Notes
- Read this guide4 min
Checking your own bias
Your route in was one route. Do not sell it as the only one.
- Fairness
- Feedback
- Read this guide3 min
After the session
Five minutes of follow-through doubles the value of the half hour.
- Follow-up
- Notes
- Read this guide3 min
Becoming a better mentor
The tenth session is much better than the first. Here is how to get there faster.
- Practice
- Follow-up
- Read this guide3 min
Writing good session notes
Three lines, written straight away, with nothing sensitive in them.
- Notes
- Rules and policy
- Read this guide3 min
Avoiding mentor burnout
A steady two a month beats a heroic ten and a disappearance.
- Wellbeing
- Practice
- Read this guide4 min
Mentoring groups and running workshops
One question, several voices, and nobody left silent.
- Groups
- Practice
- Read this guide5 min
Mentoring a first-time manager
The shift from doing the work to being responsible for it.
- Feedback
- Careers advice
- Practice
Ready to take your first match?
Sign up, set two slots a month, and we will match you with someone trying to get into the job you already do.