Informational interviews with friends of friends, school and workplace alumni, and others in professions you’re considering will help you explore career options and make connections. They provide a safe environment to ask pointed questions—which allows you to find promising possibilities and weed out choices that aren’t a good fit.
But there’s a risk: If you don’t make a good first impression at an informational interview, you can torpedo the relationship. You may not know at this point exactly where you’re headed, and that’s OK. But as San Francisco–based executive coach Rebecca Zucker notes, “You still need to come across in a way that inspires confidence and makes other people want to help you.” Here’s how to do that.
Step 1: Be Clear About the Help You’re Asking For
When you aren’t totally sure what you want, it may seem like a good strategy to leave yourself wide open. For example, you might say, “I’d like something in communications.” But what kind of communications? Marketing? Advertising? Public relations? For a nonprofit? A big corporation? In health care? Consumer products? If you haven’t even begun to focus your search, it becomes a monumental task—and a waste of time—for people to assist you.
Zucker suggests creating a brief “positioning statement” before you start to make your inquiries. “It can be tentative,” she says, “but it should still be confident: ‘I’m looking to make a change, and I’m not sure what direction I’m heading, but two things that intrigue me are X and Y.’ Put it out in an organized manner that people can respond to and that will add to your research.”
If you aren’t sure what you want, or you’re interested in more than one potential career, just be as specific as you can for now. This will expand your options, not limit them. Somebody may say, for instance, “I don’t know anyone in New England archaeology, but if you like historic preservation, I know someone who works at the Victorian Society.” You want to paint a picture so clear that your contacts will think of real-life people they know who can help you.
Executive coach Michael Melcher also emphasizes the importance of being up-front about your motives for meeting. “It’s an error to call up a former client, say you want to catch up, and then when you get together, spring on them that ‘the reason I want to talk to you is that I, too, want to be an entertainment lawyer.’ It’s insincere.” Instead, he suggests an opening along these lines: “‘I’d like to get together, and I have an ulterior motive: I’m exploring a transition to XYZ, and I’d like to ask you questions about it.’ That way, they can say yes or no—and they’ll probably say yes.”
Step 2: Read Up Before You Meet
Do some research on your contact’s company and industry before you meet. By making a timely remark about a new product release, for example, or asking about the impact of some proposed regulation on the industry, you can show that you’re well informed and create a bond.
Melcher says to consider the “highest and best use” of the person you’re interviewing. He’s frequently contacted by people who want to become executive coaches. “What I won’t do anymore is talk to people who say, ‘I’m wondering where I can go for coaching training.’ I feel like that’s public information; they can look online.” He’s much more willing to help them choose between competing options, for example, or examine revenue models for a new coaching practice. “You want to show that you’ve done your homework—that you’ve taken it as far as possible before talking with the person,” he advises.
Step 3: Make It Convenient for the Interviewee
Let’s face it: You’re asking for people’s time, so you want to make it very convenient for them. Invite them to pick the date, time, and location—and pay for their drink or meal. I’ve heard friends who are unemployed grouse about spending money to take out folks who are earning a healthy paycheck—which is exactly the wrong perspective. It’s probably costing them hundreds of dollars in lost productivity to meet with you. So pick up the check.
Arrive when you say you will, and don’t take up too much time. Karen Landolt—a former lawyer who switched fields and now heads up a career services office at a state university—estimates she’s invited well over a hundred contacts out on informational interviews in the past decade. “If people say they have 20 minutes, I’ll keep track. I’ll say, ‘It’s been 20 minutes. If you have more time, I have more questions—but if not, I want to respect your time.”
Step 4: Ask the Right Questions
Good questions reflect a basic understanding of the field and a focus on the interviewee’s own experiences. Career counselor Phyllis Stein, formerly the director of Radcliffe Career Services at Harvard University, suggests the following:
- What is your typical day like? Your typical week? (And if there’s no such thing, ask about the most recent day or week.)
- What do you like most about your job? What do you like the least?
- What does it take to be successful in this field? In this company?
- I’m planning the following steps (name them) toward obtaining a job in this field. Have I overlooked any strategy or resource you think might be helpful?
Step 5: Leave with Other Names
You can learn from salespeople here: Ask interviewees who else you should connect with in their company or field, and see if they’d be willing to make introductions. And check LinkedIn to see if they have connections to other marketers, Comcast employees, specialists in Argentinean culture—whatever types of contacts you’re looking for.
When you’re trying to make connections, don’t forget to tap your alumni network, whether it’s from college, grad school, or former employers. Recalls Landolt, the former lawyer: “When I was making a transition, I was at a huge firm with 450 attorneys and a turnover rate of about 70%. There were attorneys all over who had worked there, and I used the network, because we’d been through the same war. We didn’t know each other, but I’d talk to current employees at the firm and ask, ‘Can you introduce us?’ And they’d say sure.”
Step 6: Keep the Connection Alive
You’ll want to turn informational interviews into ongoing relationships, so look for key details you can follow up on later. Maybe the person you’re meeting with just got back from a vacation to Fiji, or you both like the Dodgers, or your kids go to the same school. That’s your starting point. Then after you’ve sent the all-important thank-you note (it does make an impact), you can forward interesting travel articles, send an email when your team makes the playoffs, or invite your contact to sit with you at the school fundraiser. With each interaction, strive to learn more about the person to add depth to the relationship. The process of learning someone’s hometown, college, names and ages of children, favorite hobbies, favorite restaurants, previous jobs, and long-range goals provides a raft of opportunities to connect over shared interests and keep up a dialogue.
Periodically report back on your career development so the folks who have given you counsel can see that you’re applying their advice. “Make it an open feedback channel,” says executive coach Rebecca Zucker. “Let them know, ‘Here are some of the things I learned, and I’d love to talk more with you as I progress.’”
Elizabeth Amini suggests getting in touch around major milestones. “You can send holiday greetings (‘Thank you for your mentoring this year’) and updates on advice they gave you (‘Thanks for recommending the University of Southern California—I applied and just got in’).” Put reminders in your calendar to touch base.
Step 7: Add Value to the Relationship
Just as your contacts are helping you, try to add value to their lives by providing helpful connections of your own or simply offering encouragement.
For example, I make a point of congratulating people when I see they’ve been quoted in an article. In the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, Elizabeth Amini made $10 donations in the names of those who’d helped her out and sent them a short note letting them know. “It wasn’t calculated at all,” she says, “but people were so thankful.”
Conducting a slew of informational interviews might sound stressful, but you can actually enjoy the process if you keep it in perspective. When Karen Landolt felt demoralized in her job as a corporate lawyer, these conversations gave her something to look forward to. “It was almost therapeutic and how I got through my days: At least I get to have lunch with this interesting person.”