SwM - Cohort 7 (Winter/Spring 2024)
CONVERSATION GUIDE
Mentors and Student Conversations
Speed Networking Protocols: Introduction
Welcome to Soar with MENTOR Speed Mentorship Networking!
Every meeting, students will have the opportunity to meet with a Dell mentor 2-3 times in a virtual breakout room.
Synchronous (Video Conferencing) protocols:
Mentors and students will have an assigned breakout room
Program leaders will pop in and out of the assigned rooms
Mentors and students will return to the main room when the conversation is over, or the designated time is up
Dell Mentors will lead the first conversation by introducing themselves and the students will respond.
Some ideas as to what you may want to say in your introductions:
My name is….
My role/major is...at company/school
What excites me about this mentorship program is….
Some of my current goals include…..
Possible Questions for your first Speed Networking Conversation – Use as needed, in any order, to keep the conversation flowing
Mentor
Can you share a bit about your family?
What are your favorite things to do when you're not in school?
If you could have dinner with a famous person, who would it be? Why?
What extracurricular activities do you like to participate in during the school year?
What are some things in your life you are most proud of?
How would your friends describe you?
Any thoughts on what you want to do after you graduate?
What is one thing you would really like to know about me?
Student
Can you share a bit about your family?
What do you like to do outside of work?
What was your educational pathway?
What was your first job? What did you like or dislike about it?
Did you think you’d find yourself in this industry? How did you get here?
If you could learn to play any instrument, what would it be and why?
What superhero do you identify with the most? Why?
Did you have a mentor at some point in your career? If so, how did s/he help you? If not, why did you never seek one out
Examples of Career and Life Readiness Follow Up Questions
Mentorship
What is your first reaction when you receive candid feedback?
Do you regularly take time to reflect on your week and jot down things that could have gone better?
What do you do to keep yourself accountable to new lessons or goals you're pursuing?
What is the difference between a Mentor and an Advocate?
What if you don't connect or get along with your mentor?
Digital Branding
What personal and professional interests do you plan to incorporate into your personal brand?
What audience is your social media presence currently designed for?
What changes do you plan to make to your social media presence to leverage it more effectively?
Resume Building
A brand statement clearly defines who you are professionally; it includes hard skills, soft skills, and an impact statement. What is it about you that a future employer can expect? What are you known for? How might you express that in your resume?
Resumes include accomplishments. Accomplishments are not the tasks themselves but the end result or impact of those actions. In what ways does your resume clearly state impact? Share some specific examples. How might you improve them?
Interviewing Skills
What are some ways to follow up after an interview?
What are some ways to answer the 'tell me about yourself' question?
How many steps are there in a typical interview process?
Examples of Today in Technology Follow Up Questions
Cloud
What do you see as the real benefit to Cloud Computing?
What do you see as some of the biggest challenges with Cloud adoption?
Artificial Intelligence
What AI use cases do you find most interesting?
What questions do you have about AI? Where might you find further information?
How many times per day do you think you interact with AI in some way?
Security
What is your current understanding of security?
How might it impact your life and study/work flow?
How might security have to adjust and change as new technologies appear, like AI?
Possible Sentence Prompts to support your conversations
Mentor
Suggestions:
One thing I noticed….
Something to consider trying is…
A couple things to keep in mind….
Clarification:
Would you tell me more about….
Let me see if I understand…
Redirection:
What is another way….
What do you think would happen if…
How is ….different (like) from….
Student
Some of my take aways from the session are….
Something I learned that I can apply to my life today is…
Something I think I can apply to my future is….
One of my challenges with this will be…
In some of my goals, you will notice….
Here is an example of…
An area where I would like your opinion or feedback is….
Some ideas for ending and/or reflecting on a conversation:
I wish to share what I have learned from you….
Another area of growth that I feel proud about…
This has been a great opportunity for us to learn together.
I also think you grew as with evidence in….
It has been a pleasure to meet you…thank you for the conversation…