The ability to ask meaningful open-ended questions is important for both Mentors and Mentees. Open-ended questions start with “What”, “How”, “Who”, “Where”, or “Why”.
In your role as a Mentor, you can use open-ended questions to get to know your Mentee’s perspectives, concerns, and gaps. You could also help your Mentees understand themselves better.
For example, they can reflect on their cultural backgrounds, discover their strengths and weaknesses, and start exploring career options in Canada. Furthermore, learning about your Mentees through open-ended questions will enable you to provide more focused support throughout the mentoring program.
These are some open-ended questions you can ask, organized by topic.
Career Journey
- How did you choose your career path?
- What was your educational path like?
- Who has inspired you in your career?
- What are you most proud of in your career?
Culture and Work Environment
- How are decisions typically made in a workplace in your country/culture?
- How is feedback typically given by a supervisor in your country/culture?
- What did you do to build work relationships in your previous workplace?
- What was the relationship with your manager/s like in your previous workplace?
Career Goals
- What are your short-term and long-term goals?
- Why do you want to get into [profession / industry]?
- Which strengths do you want to continue using in your career in Canada?
- What additional skills do you want to develop?
Action Planning
- What are the steps or actions you’ll take before our next conversation?
- What’s the purpose of the activities you’re planning?
- What are possible obstacles to your plans? How will you overcome them?
- How will you measure your success?
Personal interests
- What’s important to you in your life?
- What do you love to do outside of work?
- What are you most grateful for?
- Who is someone that you’re grateful for in your life?
*Note: You don’t need to get too personal, but asking these questions can help you get to know your Mentee as a person. The focus should be to help your Mentee better understand who they are and what’s important to them.
Examples of how to use open-ended questions
| If your Mentee says | Some open-ended questions could be: |
|---|---|
| Back home, my manager used to make all the important decisions and he was also involved in the team’s work without being a micromanager. Everyone in the team liked him. | That’s interesting! What leadership qualities of your manager inspired you? What helped him build so much trust with the team? |
| Based on our previous discussion, I came up with a list of 10 strengths. Next, I will prepare interview answers to refer to them. Will you help me refine the 10 answers? | That’s excellent! I think you can start with your strongest areas to build solid examples. Of the 10 skills, which are the 2 strongest ones? Where and how did you apply them? Send me those 2 examples first and I’ll give you feedback. |
| I have applied to 120 jobs this week. I’m exhausted! | May I ask you some questions: What’s your focus for your job search? Which specializations, within your profession, are most interesting to you? (please name 2 or 3) What time management and wellbeing techniques are you using? |
Practical tips from real-life scenarios with your Mentee
| What do you do if your mentee… | Tip |
|---|---|
| … asks multiple questions in each message? (it would take you a long time to answer each question) | Propose a 30-min phone call. Mention that you’ll answer one at a time. |
| … does not ask any questions? (just says ‘thank you’ or they limit their responses to answering your questions only) | Emphasize that everything discussed is confidential. Prompt them to ask you more questions. A good open-ended question is: “What questions do you have for me?” |
| … only uses closed (yes/no) questions? | Instead of replying with a simple “yes” or “no”, remind them of the value of open-ended questions. |
| … asks very basic questions that demonstrate they have not done any research? E.g., “Which job board is best? I only heard about Indeed.com” | Instead of replying with a simple answer, tell them that they should do their ‘homework’. Challenge them with two examples of actions they can take, and say “what else can you do this week?” |