How do I mentor someone in another country?
Matching here is cross-border by default. A mentor in Manchester may be talking to a mentee in Lagos or Bengaluru, where almost everything about the hiring process is different.
- Read time
- 4 minutes
- Module
- Harder conversations
- Session length
- 30 minutes
What good looks like.
Label your advice with its market. "In the UK, a photo on a CV is unusual" is helpful; "never put a photo on a CV" is wrong in half the world.
Ask before you assume. Application norms, referral culture, and how directly people are expected to speak in interviews all vary enormously.
What travels well is the reasoning: why an employer wants evidence, why a specific example beats a claim. Give them the principle and let them apply it locally.
A sequence you can follow.
- 01
Ask where they are applying
Country and sector, in the first five minutes.
- 02
Label your frame
Say which market your experience comes from.
- 03
Teach the principle
Explain why the convention exists, not just what it is.
- 04
Check the local norm
Ask what they have been told locally, and compare.
What to avoid.
Presenting one country's norms as universal
Advising on visas or work rights you do not know
Treating an accent or a phrasing difference as a weakness
Extra tips
Small things that make the half hour better.
Say which market you know
"This is how it works in the UK" makes your advice usable elsewhere.
Ask how hiring works there
Two minutes of their context stops half an hour of wrong advice.
Slow down and drop idioms
Plain sentences travel; office slang does not.
Check the assumption behind the norm
Direct self-promotion reads differently in different places.
Take this guide with you.
Download a printable version of this guide: the short answer, the steps, the extra tips, the mistakes to avoid and the questions mentors ask, to read before your next session.
The things people ask first.
What language are sessions in?
English is the working language across the network.
How are time zones handled?
Slots are shown in each person's own time zone when they book.
Next: Safeguarding basics.
What to do, immediately, if something concerns you.