1. What were your motives for helping this person?
I met a graduating student who was looking for work in an industry that I am very familiar with and have a lot of informal contacts in. My motives were to help the student find employment post-graduation.
2. Did you benefit from this relationship in any way? How?
I didn't benefit from connecting the student with my professional contacts, but I do derive a lot of satisfaction from being able to connect any student with the right person. There's an emotional component to feeling like I was the one who helped them find the perfect next step.
3. What was your role in the helping relationship? In what way do you think you helped this person? Looking back, is there anything that you might have done differently?
I helped the student get in touch with professionals working in the field he wanted to enter. This had the potential to lead to new internship and employment opportunities that he probably would not have found otherwise.
4. Was there anything that this person did, said, or believed that you did not agree with? How did you react?
Not that I can think of, although once I helped introduce the student to the professional, I took a step back from the interaction and let the student explore on his own.
5. Did you learn anything from this relationship?
Although nothing negative happened, this interaction did make me realize that I have a unique professional network in areas and industries I hadn't explored before and that this could be beneficial to both me and my students.