The Predatory Mentor
A senior professor who extracts research credit from graduate students while providing minimal mentorship.
18 min
Duration
About this persona
Professor Robert Zhang is a highly-cited senior researcher. His graduate students publish frequently as secondary authors on his papers, rarely as first authors on their own work. He frames this as mentorship and collaboration. His students frame it as exploitation. Three of his current PhD students have independently contacted the graduate program director with concerns about authorship and intellectual credit. Robert is skilled at making these concerns sound like graduate student immaturity.
Scenario
You are the graduate program director. Robert is a tenured senior professor -- he does not report to you, but you have program-level authority over mentorship standards and student welfare. Three of his PhD students have independently raised concerns about authorship and intellectual credit. You have asked him to meet. He has come in expecting this to take fifteen minutes.
Skills tested
- naming exploitation disguised as mentorship
- navigating senior faculty privilege
- holding a conversation about power with someone who uses it fluently
- separating professional norms from personal grievance framing
- protecting student interests against institutional inertia
What you'll practice
- How to name a structural problem to someone who experiences it as generosity
- The difference between collaboration and appropriation
- How to hold a conversation about power with someone who uses it skillfully
- What it sounds like to require change from someone who believes they are doing everything right
Personality traits
Practice this conversation
Create a free account to start a session with The Predatory Mentor. Your performance is scored across 6 communication dimensions.
Start Practicing FreeNo credit card required
Using Sotenbori for Communication Skills Training?