Industry Insights

Mentor-Mentee Relationships: Making and Sustaining Connections

By Traci Czyzyk, PhD, MBA and Marcus Delatte, PhD

Defining a Mentor

Mentors play a crucial role in their mentees’ success at all career stages by offering an unbiased perspective, creating a safe space to address challenges, and helping shape the personal and professional goals of the mentee while building their confidence. The influence of mentors can be limitless, as they can help with transitions and significantly support the career trajectory of mentees. Although there is a wealth of information available on how to develop one’s career, there is no substitute for the face-to-face interactions and learnings from the real-life experiences of mentors with established success and expertise in roles that mentees aspire to pursue. Mentors can help mentees build their network, including connecting them with potential sponsors who can advocate and open doors to career opportunities.

Identifying a Mentor

It is normal to feel hesitant to ask for time and energy from someone who is likely very busy, but that should not be a deterrent from asking since they have a choice to politely decline a request. A generic request of “will you be my mentor” should be avoided as it is unlikely to be successful, especially if there is not some professional relationship through current or past employment, or prior interactions through networking events or conferences.

So where should one start? Many mentoring relationships start with informal conversations, a low-pressure approach that allows both parties to gauge compatibility before committing. Professional societies can play a prominent role in growing a network and creating new connections with experts in the field. At the ASPET annual meetings, this is enabled through the Career Connections program which offers ample opportunities to meet scientists from varied backgrounds. For those interested in private sector, ASPET’s Industry Science Committee will be hosting several exclusive events led by industry scientists, including sessions on non-traditional career paths, collaborations and partnerships in the biopharmaceutical industry, and a fire side chat with a biotech leader.

Many institutions, private companies, and professional societies offer formal mentoring programs where mentees are matched to a mentor based on their personal and professional goals. At ASPET, these opportunities include the Mentoring Network and Partnering for Success programs, organized by the Mentoring and Career Development and the Young Scientists Committees, and the one-on-one mentoring program for all members organized by ASPET MentorMatch. Mentees are encouraged to take advantage of these and other programs to formally establish and expand their network of mentors.

An often-forgotten career development tool is the informational interview, which could also serve as a potential opportunity to meet a new mentor. This is an initial one‑time conversation to learn more about a person’s job and the journey they took to get there. Since there is limited time (usually thirty minutes to one hour) in informational interviews, it is important for the mentee to come prepared with thoughtful questions in order to make a strong first impression, keeping the door open for future conversations and for relationships to develop more organically.

Building Lasting Relationships

It takes significant time, energy, and perseverance to build a network of professional connections. It also takes time to build the trust and mutual respect that form the foundation of a successful long-term mentor-mentee relationship. The mentee cannot expect the mentor to instinctively know the areas in which they need to grow. The mentee needs to have a self-awareness of what motivates them, what their goals are, and what intrinsic and extrinsic factors may be impacting their career growth. The mentee should aim to use the time most efficiently, focusing on one or two priorities per meeting so both mentor and mentee leave feeling productive. It is also important to follow up with a brief thank-you note after initial meetings, reiterating that the mentee values their time and the insights.

Mentors give significant time and guidance freely and expect nothing in return. One of the most rewarding parts of being a mentor is the satisfaction of helping others succeed. Therefore, it’s important that mentees take responsibility for sustaining and strengthening the relationship via regular check‑ins that share progress and successes—not just challenges.

Conclusions

While the goal is often to establish a long-term mentor-mentee relationship, it’s important to take advantage of a wide range of opportunities, from networking at conferences to informal and formal mentoring programs. Mentees should work with multiple mentors that support targeted areas of their career to guide them through transitions and challenges. Mentoring is equally important across career paths—academia, the private sector, government, lab-based or non-lab-based roles—where expectations for the mentor-mentee relationship are similar. The most successful relationships occur when mentees take ownership of their development and remain proactive, engaged, and open to feedback. With commitment and clear expectations, mutually beneficial and productive mentor-mentee relationships can become a consistent and rewarding part of one’s career.

Drs. Czyzyk and Delatte are industry scientists who support the development of therapeutic products, as well as the development of trainees and early career faculty in academic institutions and junior scientists and others in industry. The insights above are intended to help prospective mentees in establishing and maintaining healthy, focused, and productive relationships with mentors.