How to make the most of your lighthouse Virtual Career Session(s)
See below for a playbook on how to make the most out of your lighthouse membership, and more specifically the 1-on-1 Career Sessions. Feel free to follow these guidelines and of course share your experience in the comments below!
What is a lighthouse 1-on-1 Micro Mentorship Session?
It’s a one-on-one 30–45 minute virtual or phone conversation with a professional peer who has experience with your career topic and has opted-in to sharing their insight to help others.
Unlike traditional mentorship, Micro-Mentorship is an innovative approach to mentoring that allows opportunities for individuals to seek guidance from others for a specific, well-defined need over a short period of time. If you and your match hit it off, you can of course discuss keeping in touch and scheduling a follow up.
Like you, these individuals are busy professionals so be considerate of their time by explaining why you’re hoping to meet with them, being understanding if they can’t meet on your timeline, and going into the conversation prepared with questions you’re hoping to cover.
How does it work?
Once you’ve set a goal, we’ll generate a Personalized Action Plan for you. On this Action Plan, you’ll see a step (usually toward the bottom) called “1-on-1 Micro Mentorship”. Here are the steps once you’re ready to request a 1-on-1 conversation:
- Review the profiles to see who is the best fit for you and select “Request Introduction”
- Share your availability and some context with your requested Mentor
- An email introduction will then be sent by thelighthouse connecting you and your Mentor
- Finalize the meeting time over email and send a calendar invitation with a meeting link
- Have the 30–45 min virtual Micro Mentorship conversation
Suggested Session Outline
Below are some suggestions for how to best use the time with your match. We offer these guides to offer a bit of structure around the conversation. If you’re vibing and have your own approach, feel free to ignore and do your own thing!
👋 Introductions (5 min)
- Welcome & hello
- Quick self-intros from both of you
- Align on Session Objective: reiterate what you set as the session objective in your booking form
💬 Working Session (25–30 min)
- Offer some more context, workplace dynamics, any details necessary
- Ask them to share their experience with the topic and examples of how they’ve approached a similar situation
- Ask any questions you specifically want to cover
- Ask for suggestions for any resources they would recommend on the topic (books, podcasts, courses, Ted Talks, communities, etc.)
🛠 Getting Tactical (5–10min)
- Talk about actionable next steps and solutions — create a game plan
- Role-play if it makes sense
🚀 Wrap up (5–10 min)
- Any last comments, questions or thoughts from either side
- Talk about next session if it makes sense (with you or another mentor)
After the call, see if they’d be open to a follow up or, if your questions are answered, say thank you and add them to your network!
Still Unsure?
At the end of the day, your lighthouse Session is where we want you to feel most comfortable in your own self. If that means coming as you are, we celebrate that. Not everyone has a plan. If it means preparing with an arsenal of notebooks, we admire that too. Some of us want the structure. We recommend you use your lighthouse Sessions in any way that makes sense for you.
If you ever need more support, we’re always here to help guide you with confidence and clarify. Leave a commend down below or shoot us an email at yourfriends@thelighthouse.us and say hi!
Written & Edited by Athena Maria Kalamaras
