Conducting an Informational Interview

What is the purpose of an informational interview? The informational interview is truly the secret weapon for helping you explore your career interests, learn about what it takes to be successful in a career, and create a network of professionals that can help you to jumpstart a career.

An informational interview helps you to gain a better understanding of a career field, company or industry to determine if it is a good fit for you. For instance, a business student can use his or her education to pursue a career in a variety of industries. How is a student supposed to know if he or she would do well within an industry without being exposed to its virtues and challenges? The informational interview provides you with valuable information concerning the rewards and challenges of a profession, what education is needed to enter that field and best practices for succeeding in that field.

In order to truly be exposed to a variety of interesting career possibilities, you should conduct interviews with professionals in a variety of industries to determine which industry or occupation appeals to you the most. You should conduct a minimum of 8-12 informational interviews that are either industry specific or cover a variety of industries that you are considering for a profession. You will be amazed at how much these interviews will help you.

One of the purposes of your education is to help you to think and to learn to adapt to different environments. You should not be surprised if you decide on a career path that may be different from your formal academic major. For example, a music major became a paralegal. A finance major can decide to pursue a career in commercial construction.

An informational interview can be used to gain exposure to industry leaders in a non-threatening manner. It is a conversation, not a job interview so the stress level is generally lower. You should not inquire about a possible job opening during the interview as this tends to dampen the spirit of the meeting. If the professional is interested in offering you a position, don’t be surprised if he or she asks you to apply for that position. This is not an unlikely scenario if you are well prepared for the interview and present well

The informational interview is a wonderful opportunity for you to practice your interviewing skills and to prepare for job interviews in a non-threatening environment. Remember that you are asking the professional for his or her help in preparing to jumpstart a career. Most professionals want to “give back” to their professions and help the next generation to succeed. Besides, the informational interview is also a great opportunity for business professionals to get exposure to top notch young adults ready to start their professional careers.

How do you make an informational interview most effective? You should be ready to ask the professional for advice on jumpstarting a career in that field. You should also seek to impress the professional with the level of research you have done to prepare for the interview.

Examples of great questions to ask in an informational interview include:

Success: “Please tell me about your own career path and what has helped you to be successful in your career.”

• Rewards and Challenges: “What do you consider the most important rewards and challenges of being in this profession?”
• Trends: “What trends are most impacting your business now?”
• Insights: “What interests you most about your profession/your employer?”
• Advice: “What can I be doing right now to prepare myself for a successful career in this field?”
• Resources: “What resources should I explore next?”
• Research: “During the research that I did to prepare for this interview, I noticed that your group works closely with middle market business owners. Can you tell me more about the services that you offer to them?”
• You should ask the professional for personal introductions to other professionals that may be able to also help you to prepare for a career in that industry.
• You should ask the professional if he or she would be willing to continue to mentor you periodically. It is important to keep the professional in your mentoring network both before and after you have accepted a position.
• You should ask the professional for advice on the next steps to take to successfully pursue a career in that field. In addition, you should seek to develop additional rapport with the professional and periodically touch base with him or her to keep the relationship intact.
• Eliminate the word, “job” from your vocabulary. Always think in terms of a position and career. A potential employer will be impressed if you indicate that you are excited about developing a career in that profession

Your Career Coach should be prepared to introduce you to his or her professional network using these steps:

• The Career Coach should ask permission of the professional before an introduction is made. That way, the professional will be expecting your contact.
• The Career Coach should include your resume and cover letter in the introductory email. There are examples of these introductory emails in the chapter leader’s resources.
• The Career Coach should instruct you beforehand how to respond to the introduction. That response should be made no later that 24-48 hours after the introduction. You should copy the Career Coach on your initial email correspondence with the professional. That way, he or she is assured that you are following up on your introductions before they take the time to make additional ones.
• You should also be prepared to set up your own information interviews locating interview candidates from local articles, directories or other sources.
• Your Career Coach should encourage you to develop a network of mentors and drip on them periodically. You should update your mentors periodically on your career search

How can a Career Coach help you to be well prepared for an informational interview with a professional?

• Introduce stress into a mock interview with you.
• Encourage you to dress properly for the interview, to smile, to give a firm handshake and to show quiet confidence.
• Help you to eliminate filler words from your speech such as “you know”, “you guys”, “like”, and “um”. During a mock interview, your Career Coach should document how often you use these words, write them down after the interview and then discuss those with you after the mock interview.
• You should conduct a web search prior to the interview to learn how to conduct an effective informational interview for that profession or industry.
• You need to be your own best cheerleader and show quiet confidence that you are a great fit for that profession.
• You should conduct research for an informational interview as if it were a real job interview. (industry, company, division or department, team, interviewer).
• You should prepare intelligent questions that show that you have done a good level of research to prepare for that interview.
• If needed you can state during the interview, “This interview is very important to me. May I please reference my research notes that I prepared for this interview?”

What type of feedback should a Career Coach provide to you after a mock interview?

• Provide candid, but encouraging feedback.
• Were you dressed properly?
• Did you smile and appear confident?
• Did you have good questions and answers?
• Did you do enough research to prepare adequately for the interview and to ask intelligent questions?
• Did you ask for introductions to other professionals?
• Did you ask if the professional would agree to mentor you in the future?

After an informational interview with a professional, you should:

• Send the professional a hand-written thank you note following the interview.

Follow-up with an email stating the following:

• Thank the professional again for taking the time out of their busy schedule to meet with you.
• Comment on something that you learned from the interview and consider attaching an article on that topic that may be of interest to the professional.
• Indicate that you will be following-up with them to keep in contact and seek their advice on additional questions that may come to mind.

We hope that you find these interviewing hints helpful. The more informational interviews that you conduct, the better your interviewing skills will become.