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I recently got a mentor. I appreciate that I can be candid with her. I don’t necessarily want to stay in a firm long term and she said she was willing to help mentor me even if I change jobs, so it’s perfect. But if my goal was to make partner, I’d probably pick someone with a higher status knowing that investing in the relationship would help in the long run for that specific firm, but it would likely be a more professional relationship
Honestly select someone you get along with and you like talking to. The closer to “friend” status the better. You’ll feel more comfortable asking questions and the convos will flow much better. I have a mentor but we haven’t talked since the pandemic began. Yeah you don’t want that kind of mentor.
Disagree. You want someone with clout who can vouch for you - you can ask any random person you work closely with your dumb questions
Your mentor is not your friend. Your friends are outside the firm. Find a high status person. Be a good mentee. Reach out to your mentor. Have an agenda. Be organized. Do not spill your guts. This isn’t high school. Also, build bridges with people in different practice groups.
What I am saying is that mentees need someone to relate to. How many times have you been in a position where you just feel stuck? A good mentor can help you guide that without needing to raise to a supervisor or practice leader. Doesn’t need to be a friend per se but why not? If you want a social hour with the firms CEO then by all means ask for one- but to me that is not a mentor and the power dynamic between someone like that and a new associate will make it difficult to discuss issues openly.
Do you have any mentors already? If so I would choose a senior partner who you trust and who would be a good advocate for you. If you have several people who fit those requirements, I would pick someone you don't work with much but who you think could give you a lot of work.
If you don't have a mentor yet, pick whichever partner you feel the closest to already and try to deepen the relationship.
Making this decision based on a single criteria is not optimal because this is a complex situation. Some quick thoughts based on my experience below.
Someone you think you will get along with is important because good mentorship requires a lot of trust so that the mentor and mentee can be candid with each other.
Someone well connected is important for helping promote you within the firm.
Someone with "juice" in the firm is important for helping promote / protect you within the firm.
Re whether you should choose someone based on wanting to do more work for them, I think you could go either way. I've ended up building informal mentoring relationships naturally with partners I've done a lot of work for, so if I were offered a formal mentoring opportunity now, I'd choose someone I don't work with a lot. But if I were a first year, and worried that nobody would use me regularly, maybe it does make sense to try to shortcut the process of developing these relationships naturally by asking for a mentor you hope to work with a lot.
Pick someone around the senior associate level that has been there a long time and has a good work flow