Informational Interview Questions And Answers

An Informational Interview is a meeting in which a potential job seeker seeks advice on their career, the industry, and the corporate culture of potential future workplace, while an employed professional learns about the job seeker and judges their professional potential and fit to the corporate culture, so building their candidate pool for future hires.

Benefits of informational interviewing:
☛ Get firsthand, relevant information about the realities of working within a particular field, industry or position. This kind of information is not always available online or in print.
☛ Find out about career paths you did not know existed.
☛ Discover what others with your same major are doing in their careers.
☛ Get tips about how to prepare for and enter a given career.
☛ Improve your communication skills and confidence speaking with professionals.
☛ Learn what it's like to work at a specific organization.
☛ Gain knowledge that can help you in writing your resume, interviewing for jobs in the field, and your other job search activities.
☛ Initiate a professional relationship and expand your network of contacts in a specific career field; meet people who may forward job leads to you in the future.

Here are a few steps for informational interviewing:
☛ Research Career Fields
☛ Identify people to interview
☛ Prepare for the interview
☛ Initiate contact
☛ Conduct the informational interview
☛ Follow-up

☛ Pursue your own contacts. People you already know, even if they are not in fields of interest to you, can lead you to people who are. This includes family, friends, teaching assistants, professors and former employers.
☛ Call organizations directly or visit their website for the name of someone working within a particular area of interest.
☛ Review the Book of Lists, a directory of leading employers in major urban areas in California, part of the Career Center Collection.
☛ Read newspaper and magazine articles.
☛ Contact professional or trade associations.
☛ Identify names of Cal alumni. Berkeley graduates will often take a special interest in Cal students.

You should do some initial research on the career field or employer using internet and print resources.

☛ Dress neatly and appropriately, as you would for a job interview.
☛ Arrive on time or a few minutes early.
☛ Restate that your objective is to get information and advice, not a job.
☛ Give a brief overview of yourself and your education and/or work background.
☛ Be prepared to direct the interview, but also let the conversation flow naturally, and encourage the interviewee to do most of the talking.
☛ Listen well and show genuine interest in what the person has to say.
☛ Take notes if you would like.
☛ Respect the person's time. Keep the appointment length within the time span that you requested.
☛ Ask the person if you may contact him or her again in the future with other questions.
☛ Always ask for names of other people to talk to for additional information or a different perspective.

☛ Keep records. Right after the interview write down what you learned, what more you'd like to know and your reactions in terms of how this industry, field or position would "fit" with your lifestyle, interests, skills and future career plans.
☛ Send a thank-you note within 1-2 days to express your appreciation for the time and information given. Based on whether the informational interview was relatively informal or more businesslike, this may be a brief handwritten note, an email, or a business letter.
☛ Keep in touch with the person, especially if you had a particularly nice interaction; let him or her know that you followed up on their advice and how things are going as a result. This relationship could become an important part of your network.

This is a good opening question because it will provide you with a good overview of the day to day requirements of the job. It is an easy question to answer and will help your contact open up and start sharing information.

☛ Contact the person by phone or email.
☛ Mention how you got his/her name.
☛ Ask whether it is a good time to talk for a few minutes.
☛ Emphasize that you are looking for information, not a job.
☛ Ask for a convenient time to have a 20-30 minute appointment.
☛ Be ready to ask questions on the spot if the person says it is a good time for him/her and that s/he will not be readily available otherwise.

This informational interview question can provide you with some insight into the typical career path of someone in this line of work as well as information about the skills, education and experience you may need to develop to be marketable in the field.

Asking this informational interview question can help draw out any potential downsides of the job that might not be obvious to an outsider.
Example:
A workshop facilitator might tell you he dislikes all of the paperwork he is required to deal with. If you had simply attended one of the facilitator's workshops, you would see the public part of the job, but you would not know about the private side of the job.

This question is also great for drawing out the kind of inside information that only someone in the job could share with you.

People are typically uncomfortable stating their salaries. Do not directly ask the person how much he or she makes, you will make them extremely uncomfortable and break down any rapport you had built up! However, if you ask about salary in this more general way, you can often get an idea of the range.

☛ Develop a short (15-30 second) overview of yourself, including your reasons for contacting this person, as a way to introduce yourself and define the context of the meeting.
☛ Plan open-ended questions to ask.

This question starts to shift the focus of the interview from your contact to you. It is a great question to help you discover insider tips for making yourself as marketable as possible in a specific industry.

Another question that will help you determine how to ensure you are employable in the industry.

This question gives you the opportunity to present some of your qualifications to your contact and if your contact is aware of a job opening, it can prompt him or her to mention that opportunity if your qualifications are a good fit for the job.

Always ask for a business card at the end of the meeting so you have all of the information needed to contact this person in the future and to send a thank you note.

Always ask this informational interview question. If your contact knows about job openings, this question can prompt him or her to mention those opportunities.

Here are some final notes on asking good informational interview questions:
☛ Type out a list of the informational interview questions you want to ask and bring it with you.
☛ Once you ask the first couple of questions, you probably will not need the list anymore. Typically, your interview will turn into more of a conversation, so you will not need the list to generate discussion, but you'll still have your list ready to ensure you get all of the information you need.
☛ It is fine to take notes during an informational interview. Just ask your contact for permission first to ensure he or she feels comfortable with that.
☛ Always bring your resume to an informational interview. It is not always appropriate to present your resume during this type of interview, but the conversation may naturally turn in that direction. If your contact asks to see your resume, that is a good sign and you will want to be prepared.
☛ Bring your own personal business cards to every informational interview. Your contact may not know about any job leads at the time, but something might come up in the near future, so you will want to ensure that he or she has all of your contact information. Providing a personal business card is the easiest, most professional way to ensure your contact has that information.

Be considerate of your contact by being careful not to go over your allotted time without their encouragement. You may say something like, "Well, it looks like I have time for one last question". Your interviewee can then either end your interview with the question, or invite you to ask additional questions. One of the last questions you should always be prepared to ask is to request the names of additional people you can add to your network of contacts. This is especially important if your goal is to obtain more job leads and contacts in the field. Also, ask for a business card and inquire whether they would mind if you stayed in contact with them. Finally, thank the interviewee for their time, and always follow-up with a thank-you letter, either by mail or by e-mail.

Your contact may give you the name of another person who you can interview, and when you mention your contact's name to the next person, your next interview will be that much easier to arrange.

The job might be ideal for you now, but it might be changing in a direction that is not a good fit for your needs. It is important to find that out in the beginning of the career planning process, so you can make informed decisions about the career choices you will make.

This informational interview question can give you insights into skills you might need in the future. If you develop those skills now, you will be more competitive when looking for work in the industry.

Another open ended question focused on the person you are interviewing. It can draw out surprising and rewarding aspects of the job that you might not have considered.