Qualities of a Mentee Posted on November 21, 2008 Hortensia Amaro (bio) describes what it takes to be a good mentee.

There are so many people that approach senior faculty, and your time is limited. So you really want to invest your mentoring in those people who you think are going to be most productive and who are going to take advantage of the opportunities.

My perspective on mentoring, and it was also my experience, is that teachers open the doors and students have to walk through them. And so it's very much a two-directional relationship; it's not, "I am going to now pour all my knowledge into you."

But I see my role as a mentor as creating opportunities and opening doors, and then students have to have the initiative, the perseverance, and the dedication to take advantage of those opportunities and to work all the hours that it takes to work.

I always tell my students and my staff that being in research is not a 9-to-5 job. If that's what you want, you really need to look for another career. It's unfortunate, but we work nights, we work weekends. And it's not just working the hours that you're paid because it takes that kind of dedication to really be competitive. And if you don't put those hours in, then you're really not going to be able to be competitive.

So I look for people who are very committed, who are willing to do whatever it takes, who have a lot of drive, and who have a history and have demonstrated abilities and skills in that commitment.

So I look for people who have taken the initiative to take all the data analysis classes that they can, that appreciate the fact that you build your research skills from the ground up.

And so at the beginning you have to be willing to do things that may not be the most exciting, but are learning steps. And I look for people who are always asking, "What else? What new can I do? Is there another responsibility I can take?" because that shows that they're willing to work hard, that they're curious and want to learn new things. They don't just want to stay in what's comfortable for them.

And I look for people who have a passion, that they have some kind of vision about what they want to do and why they're in this field. And I always tell students that I think it's really important to go with their passion; they need to go inside and have some sense of why are they doing this work.

Even broadly -- sometimes you do work as a student on your professor's projects, and that's important, there are skills you can learn from that. And that's very important, but you also have to be able to then think of your own research questions and take your own angle on these things that come from your interest and your initiative.

So I would say commitment, initiative, passion, and having a track record of having worked very hard and written some papers, initiative in taking your own to really build their skills to the maximum capacity: I look for those things.