The paper explores the role of external mentoring as a strategic talent attraction tool in the context of talent shortages and describes the ways in which it can help firms to find new candidates, especially among young graduates, at the same time developing its own employees. The authors conducted 21 in-depth interviews with experienced mentors from multinational companies in Russia and one expert interview. Content analysis was used to identify the key themes related to the effectiveness of external mentoring. External mentoring significantly enhances employer branding, knowledge exchange, learning and professional development. The critical components of success are voluntary participation, non-monetary recognition and long-term trust-based relationships between mentors and mentees. The paper also identifies the challenges that external mentoring may encounter and essential criteria for selecting mentors and mentees. The authors conceptualize external mentoring as a novel approach to talent attraction extending beyond internal employee development. The study provides fresh insights into resolving talent shortages and creating external talent pools, thus contributing to talent management and mentoring literature.