The Approach
Making the ask without asking
The approach has to feel natural, not transactional. You're creating a reason to connect that demonstrates your value before you ever ask for theirs — making the ask without making the ask.
Free to play · No credit card required
Part of this story
The Mentor Search
→You need guidance, but 'Will you be my mentor?' never works. Learn to identify, approach, and build mentoring relationships that actually accelerate your career.
Part of the quest
Career Navigation
→Master the conversations that shape your career trajectory. From high-stakes interviews to finding mentors, build the strategic communication skills that open doors others don't even see. You'll navigate four escalating scenarios — from the interview to the pivot — practicing the decisions that matter most when the pressure is real and the stakes are personal. This isn't theory. It's practice for the moments that define how this chapter of your life unfolds.
What you'll learn from The Approach
This scenario focuses on Making the ask without asking — a critical skill inside the broader career domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The Mentor Search, a full interactive story inside the Career Navigation quest.
Skills you'll build in Career Navigation
More scenarios in this quest
You need someone who's been where you're going. But 'will you be my mentor' is the question that never works — so you need to figure out who, and then figure out a better way to ask.
The first meeting isn't about impressing them — it's about showing you're coachable. You're demonstrating that their advice won't disappear into a void, that you'll actually do something with it.
The mentorship is real now. The challenge shifts from getting it to keeping it — showing up prepared, following through on advice, and adding value back so the relationship sustains itself.
Ready to practice Making the ask without asking?
Thousands of people use Questly to build the conversation skills that matter most.
Play this scenario free →