Informational Interview Preparation Guide

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.