Informational Interviews
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What's an informational interview?
In general, an informational interview is a meeting or conversation
between two people: someone who wants to learn more about a particular
career and someone who works in that career field.
For example, if you are a recent college graduate interested in
becoming a dentist, you would pursue informational interviews with
experienced dentists; if you wanted to go into investment banking,
you might arrange meetings with executives at Goldman Sachs or
Morgan Stanley.
Keep in mind that an informational interview is not a
job interview. However, it might lead to a job later on.
Why do I want to conduct informational interviews?
Informational interviewing is an excellent way to learn more about
a career that you are considering.
Let's say, for example, that after extensive research, you're
pretty sure you want to be a management consultant. Informational
interviews with seasoned consultants—employees at firms as
well as self-employed consultants—will help you solidify
your goals.
Your informational interviews will make you much more knowledgeable
about a particular career or field. If all goes well, you will:
- Have a sense of what you would do on a daily basis, should
you go down the career paths of your interviewees
- Be able to pinpoint prospective employers. Through your informational
interview you'll develop an understanding what it's like to work
for specific companies, firms, or individuals, and you'll be
able to make informed decisions about what employer would be
a good match for you.
- Expand your list of contacts by collecting names from interviewees
- Begin to develop a fluency in the vocabulary and verbal etiquette
of your prospective field
- Cull information from your interviewees that, during your own
job interviews, will help you show prospective employers that
you've done your homework
- Practice handling yourself well in a professional context and
discussing your own objectives
Whom should I interview?
As you might guess, you should interview people whose perspectives
will help you make decisions about what you want to do with your
life. There are two ways to go about finding interviewees:
The Connections Approach: Use your network of contacts
to find interviewees. Your network, which includes friends, family,
co-workers, college alumni, professors, and anyone else you know,
might include potential interviewees. But what is most likely is
that the people in your network either know a potential interviewee
or know someone who knows a potential interviewee. And, of course,
you can always ask for names from an interviewee.
The Cold Call Approach: This tactic skips the middleman
entirely. You simply choose a relevant company and contact the
person who's in the position that interests you. You can usually
find names pretty easily on company Web sites and in company literature.
However, if that doesn't work, call the main switchboard of the
organization and ask, for example, for the name and phone number
or email address of the head of advertising.
How do I set up an informational interview?
The three main ways of making contact are telephone, email, and
snail mail. If you call your potential interviewee, it might help
to write down what you plan to say ahead of time. If you send something
written, be sure to proofread your missive. It is especially important
that you do not say or do anything that makes it sound as though
you're trying to get the person to hire you. While that would be
nice, it's not the point of the informational interview.
Telephone calls, emails, and letters basically follow the same
structure:
- Introduce yourself
- Explain that you're interested in the field in question, but
that you would like to learn more about it through someone like
your potential interviewee, who has a lot of experience and wisdom.
- Give a specific reason you're interested in talking to the
potential interviewee—you'll show you're serious and focused
when you, for example, tell the head of a public relations firm
that you know her organization does a lot of work for environmental
groups, and you're specifically interested in that aspect of
PR.
- Ask if the person has time for a 30-minute meeting during which
you could learn more about the interviewees' work and thoughts
about their career.
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