🗨 Informational interviewing
Reflect on recent career assignments
You recently completed your *Find an expert to interview assignment, so your TA may wish to discuss this experience with you:
- Where did you find your interviewees – your own social network, LinkedIn, BadgerBridge, Career Conversations, or a SuccessWorks career adviser?
- How many people have you actually approached? Have you gotten a yes yet?
- What were you feeling throughout this process? At what stage?
Prepare for upcoming career assignments
There are upcoming opportunities to interview alumni and experts. You can absolutely do this kind of research on your own any time, but here in class it's a special chance. Instead of viewing these passively – of taking whatever you're given – you can be proactive in preparing for them. That will make your experiences much more relevant and meaningful to you.
Your TA will lead some reflection activities dealing with your recent career assignments. For example:
- Discuss what makes good Q&A sessions. Have you ever been to one? What was it like? In what ways can these be a drag, and in what ways can they be impactful?
- Interview each other. Pair up, and pretend you're interviewing each other like it's the upcoming assignment. Consider taking a few minutes to look at each others' LinkedIn profiles and generating questions. Then set a timer for one interview and reset the timer for the other. Develop some muscle memory for this stuff.
- Do a deep dive on alumni guests, as teams. If you know who is coming to visit the class as a guest, learn about them now. Divide into groups, take one alum each, and look up their LinkedIn profiles and professional websites. Think about how you could benefit from someone like them – especially since they're volunteering to share.
- Stock up on questions. Consider the following ideas for informational interview questions. Sort them into three groups: ones you'd definitely ask, ones you'd probably never ask, and ones you might ask. Be honest about what YOU would ask!
- What are your main responsibilities in your current role?
- What is a typical day (or week) like for you?
- What do you like most about your work? least?
- What kinds of problems do you deal with?
- What kinds of decisions do you make?
- How does your position fit within the organization/career field/industry?
- How does your job affect your general lifestyle?
- What current issues and trends in the field should I know about/be aware of?
- What are some common career paths in this field?
- What kinds of accomplishments tend to be valued and rewarded in this field?
- What related fields do you think I should consider looking into?
- How did you become interested in this field?
- How did you begin your career?
- How do most people get into this field? What are common entry-level jobs?
- What steps would you recommend I take to prepare to enter this field?
- How relevant to your work is your undergraduate major?
- What kind of education, training, or background does your job require?
- What skills, abilities, and personal attributes are essential to success in your job/this field?
- What is the profile of the person most recently hired at my level?
- What are the most effective strategies for seeking a position in this field?
- Can you recommend trade journals, magazines or professional associations which would be helpful for my professional development?
- If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? If not, what would you change?
- I’ve read that the entry-level salary range for this field is usually in the range of ______? Does this fit with what you’ve seen? (Don’t ask about the person’s actual salary.)
- What advice would you give someone who is considering this type of job (or field)?
- Can you suggest anyone else I could contact for additional information?
Video
As a bonus, here is a short video where L&S alumni talk about informational interviewing as a job search strategy: