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Use Informational Interviews to Scope Out a New Job
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:10 AM on January 30, 2008
The New York Times' Shifting Careers blog posts a good primer on the kinds of interviews that aren't meant to get you a job—at least, not right away. Setting up an "informational interview" with someone in an industry you're looking at is a way of finding out more about a job or career path from an inside perspective. Workplace writer Marci Alboher recommends a number of questions to ask, including:
As an important end note, make sure to follow up on any return requests you get from your interviewee, and be sure to keep the whole thing reasonably short.
- Can you tell me how you got to this position?
- What do you like most about what you do, and what would you change if you could?
- How do people break into this field?
- What are the types of jobs that exist where you work and in the industry in general?
Tags: career | interviews | job search | jobs
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
SouthernerCalifornian
Posted 6:38 AM 30/1/08
Keep in mind though that a LOT of companies, especially big ones, don't do informational interviews at all.
SouthernerCalifornian
genghis_schmengis
Posted 6:38 AM 30/1/08
This is a great skill. Also, don't look at the job interview itself as just a one-way street. View it instead as a two-way Q&A session. Firstly, you can glean a lot of important information by asking good questions. (Don't just ask anything for the sake of just asking, though.) Secondly, I find it empowering and as a result it mitigates a lot of the fear and nervousness one usually experiences during an interview.
genghis_schmengis
stephenmunday
Posted 1:37 PM 30/1/08
Straight out of the old standard "What Color is Your Parachute?" I did not read the NYT article, so I don't know whether they referenced it, but this book is the first place I came across the term well over ten years ago, and so I hope they did give credit where it was due.
stephenmunday
Stitched
Posted 10:37 AM 31/1/08
Why not ask these questions after the interview?
Especially:
"1. Can you tell me how you got to this position?"
Depending on how they answer, it will determine what the organization values. Of course, they can flat out lie, in which case the 30-day rule applies (you will find out the truth about anything said previously about organization in about 30 days of working there). Probation sometimes is a godsend.
Stitched
keppie
Posted 6:36 PM 1/2/08
Keep in mind that not all informational interviews are conducted by people trying to break into a field. This is an appropriate information gathering technique for any professional, at any point in their career.
Consider turning your informational interviews into an opportunity for "netweaving," the process of creating communities to help one another find solutions for problems. You ask for information and you share information - a mutual relationship.
I have blogged extensively about informational meetings: www.keppiecareers.wordpress.com.
Miriam Salpeter
Keppie Careers - A Head Above the Rest
www.keppiecareers.com
keppie