Your Mentee Has Applied for a Job at Your Company

Your mentee mentions it near the end of the call, a little too casually. They have applied for a role at your company. Not on your team, but two floors away, in a group you know reasonably well.

Then the question they have clearly been saving. Could you put in a word for me? And what do they ask in the interviews?

This is one of the few moments where being a good mentor and being a good colleague can pull in different directions. Handle it carefully and both relationships survive. Handle it loosely and you can damage both.

Be open about the relationship

Start by being open about the relationship. Tell the hiring manager, in a short message, that you know this candidate and have been mentoring them. Do it before anyone else mentions it.

That one sentence protects your mentee as much as it protects you, because nobody can later say they got in through a side door.

Say only what you can honestly say

Then decide what kind of word you can honestly put in. You can describe what you have seen:

• How they think through a problem
• How they respond to hard feedback
• How they have grown

You cannot speak to work you have never watched them do, and you should not pretend to. A short, specific account carries more weight than warm praise anyway.

Keep out of the decision

Keep out of the decision itself. If you are asked to interview them, say no and explain why. If someone asks for your view after the interviews, give it, but make it clear it comes from someone who knows them well.

Help with interviews without sharing questions

On the interview questions, help with everything you would help any candidate with. What the company values, how teams work, what a good answer to a design question generally looks like. Do not pass on the actual questions. If they get the job, they want to know they earned it.

Be honest and plan for what comes next

Be honest about the place, too. They will hear the recruiter's version. You can tell them what you actually like and what wears you down, which no job advert will.

And talk about what happens if they join. You might end up in the same meetings, or reviewing each other's work. Agree now that the mentoring stays separate, and that either of you can say if it starts to feel awkward.

• Asael Shinder