What's in it for the mentors? Besides the ability to teach what you know and share in the excitement of new ideas and energy, or give back to your community while saying you have your own protégé!?...Protégés can offer you a variety of perks, whether their unique experiences or valuable networks, or a guaranteed letter of recommendation to your boss vouching for your mentoring work (surely good for that next performance review), or even a cut of any new earnings they get as a result of your mentoring- all of which is specified in your potential protégé's profile.

And, mentoring isn't a big deal. Mentoring is not a job or internship or apprenticeship. Having coffee every other week and discussing goals and directions is mentoring. A couple half-days of job-shadowing is mentoring. Making a couple prescient introductions here and there to a talented protégé is mentoring.

And ultimately, it's whatever you and your protégé want. No big time commitments, no big hassles. No big deal. Want to practice your teaching chops while developing the next generation? Consider becoming a mentor.