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I will start a new job next Monday and my future manager emailed to welcome me and cc'ed my mentor, who is a senior engineer.

I would like to reach out to my mentor separately in an email, but am not sure what to say other than "I am an incoming associate software engineer and I would love to receive your mentorship and feedback in my work" in order to leave a good impression.

Are there any ideas or suggestions? Thank you for your time!

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    What exactly do you want to communicate to your mentor?
    – sf02
    Commented Feb 11, 2022 at 14:16
  • What you wrote seem totally fine. No need to add anything.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Feb 11, 2022 at 14:19
  • @sf02 Thanks for the reply! I just want to leave a good impression and make my mentor more willing to help me/provide mentorship at work. My team is fully remote.
    – Kay
    Commented Feb 11, 2022 at 14:20

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Possibly a hot take: don't send e-mails which don't add value. You'll just be adding to the overload. If you really feel the need to send something, just say

Hi, look forward to meeting you on Monday!

In particular, your mentor is not going to be "more willing to help me/provide mentorship at work" if you send this mail - either they'll be doing their job and mentoring you, or they won't, and there's honestly very little you can do to change that. People don't change behaviour because they get an e-mail.

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    "People don't change behaviour because they get an e-mail" Unless it's from a lawyer or the IRS.. ;)
    – iLuvLogix
    Commented Feb 11, 2022 at 17:28
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Contrary to the other answer at the time of writing, I think this is a great idea. Getting an email is not going to derail anyone's day like a spontaneous call would. Since emails are cheap on everyone's time, take the opportunity to fill in with other useful information.

If I were your mentor, I would be happy to read in the same email about your expectations, background, communication preferences, and other things that might help me help you.

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  • The problem isn't one person sending one e-mail. It's when I get 2 e-mails from each of 20 people, and now there are 40 things in my inbox I need to deal with. Be part of the solution to communication overload, not part of the problem.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 17:13
  • And with regards to the things in your second paragraph: these are great topics to discuss in the initial meeting between the mentor and mentee, but you're going to talk about them anyway. They don't need an e-mail.
    – Philip Kendall
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 17:15
  • There are many emails I would like to cut down on, but helpful introductions from mentees are not in that list of mine. I guess other mentors might be of a different opinion.
    – kqr
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 17:15
  • And in terms of the specific topics: just as I think it good practise to prepare and hand out an agenda for any other meeting, I think it makes sense to do so in this case.
    – kqr
    Commented Feb 13, 2022 at 17:16

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