In the real world, the mentor/mentee relationship is rarely as formal as Star Wars (although it would be cool to have a title like “Jedi Master”). Finding a mentor or mentee is a pretty organic process, sort of like making friends or dating. As you meet people, you’ll find some who you’re interested in or want to get to know more. Sometimes you only see them once or twice, and others turn into a long-term relationship. You naturally give and learn from each other, and offer support when needed. Long-term mentor/mentee relationships are pretty rare, and a lot of times are just a product of working together (such as an engineer and his/her long-time assistant).
Because those long-term mentoring relationships are so rare, I look at mentoring (or receiving mentorship) as something that we do – not a title we carry. It’s really in retrospect that we say, “That person was my mentor” or “I was his/her mentor” because it takes time to recognize that kind of relationship even exists. If you look at it more in the moment, it’s just learning, getting advice, or even just observing someone as they do their job. I think this is an important distinction because it changes the mindset from “who do I need to be around?” to “what can I learn in this situation? What can I learn from this person?”
From this mindset, mentoring (or receiving mentorship) becomes something that you can do regardless of how well you know someone – or know them at all. Some of my memorable mentee experiences include a one hour phone call with an engineer I didn’t know; being invited to sit in on sessions and observe; industry talks and events where I spoke to the presenter afterwards to ask questions or advice.