Mentoring, Pt. 2; or, 14 Questions to Ask your Mentor

Congratulations! You've found yourself a mentor.

Now what?

In preparation for a "speed-mentoring" event being held by the terrific Women's Professional Development Network at Applied Materials, Alba Figueroa (the group's co-chair of professional development) came up with this great list of questions to get you started:

1. What traits impress you the most in a working professional?
2. What skills can I develop at this stage in my career that will be the most individually rewarding and at the same time the most beneficial to the company?
3. Over the course of your career, you may have encountered people whose careers did not align with what you perceived as their potential. Do you think there is a common reason why this happened?
4. Can you recommend a "must read" book that will help me broaden my skills as a working professional or inspire me to reach my highest potential?
5. If you found yourself in a position that you knew was not maximizing your full potential, what would you do?
   
6. How do you stay motivated while working on projects or tasks that are not intrinsically interesting but will add value to your overall knowledge base?
7. How do you deal with colleagues who have done the same job for many years and make it a challenge to influence their way of thinking?
8. Is there such thing as the "Perfect Job"?
9. What is the best piece of professional advice you've ever received--and used or implemented?
10. Looking back, is there anything you would change or do differently based on what you have learned over the course of your career?
11. How has being a mentee benefited you? How has being a mentor benefited you?
12. How would you recommend starting off our relationship, and how do I most effectively approach our mentoring relationship?
13. Is there an ideal length of time for us to spend together?
14. If you were me, what questions would you be asking your mentor?
    

Thanks for sharing, Alba! Now, what questions would you add to the list?