Mentorship
What a good first session actually looks like
Most first sessions are spent on background that could have been read in advance. Here is how to spend the hour on the part that only a person can give you.
Priya Nair
2 September 20266 min read
An hour is not very long. Spend the first twenty minutes explaining who you are and you have given away a third of it before anyone has said anything useful.
Send the context before, not during
Everything a mentor needs to understand your situation can be written down. The role you are in, the thing you are trying to do next, the two attempts that did not work. Put it in the thread when you book, not in the first ten minutes of the call.
Mentors who read it beforehand walk in already thinking about your problem. That is the whole point of paying for someone's time rather than reading an article.
Bring one question, not five
Five questions in an hour means five shallow answers. One question, properly examined, usually turns out to contain the other four anyway.
The best question is the one you are slightly embarrassed to ask. If you already know how it will be answered, it is not worth the slot.
Leave with something you can do on Monday
A session that ends in encouragement feels good and changes nothing. A session that ends with an order of work, even a small one, is the difference between advice and progress.
Write it in the thread while it is fresh. The thread stays open after the call, so the next session starts from what happened rather than from the beginning again.
