A Professional Mentor

Mentee: Ian Bi

Mentor: Jacqueline Zheng,  Senior HR Manager, Eli Lilly China.

I chose Jacqueline as my mentor is because I am interested in HR and I need some specific HR know-hows during my MBA program for certain issues I had encountered and I would definitely confront again after my graduation. I did not know Jacqueline while selecting the mentor, but Eli Lilly is well known for its employee management and HR system and Jacqueline is a CEIBS graduate, a great opportunity.

When we first met during the program kickoff party, Jacqueline asked me many questions about why I chose her, what I wanted to get out of this program and my previous job, etc., something like a formal job interview.

We both agreed to meet once a month for around an hour and decided discussion topics right before each session. Jaquueline devoted tremendous energy to preparing for these sessions and we discussed whole picture of HR system and some specifics such as salary, job design, incentive plan and recruitment interview. During these sessions, we actually revaluated all organizational details and job descriptions of my previous working team. It is a great opportunity to check those previous working experience with an expert in the field, I would benefit a lot in the future. And of course, there is not a single session finished in an hour, but 2 even 3. The latest session I had is to participate in some recruitment interviews for new Eli Lilly sales reps, a great chance to know how the recruiting procedure runs in an international company before I go for recruitment market myself.