Informational Interview

3 Steps to a Perfect Informational Interview

Author: Lily Zhang

Let’s say you managed the tricky process of asking for an informational interview (and yes, we've got tips for that, too ) and have succeeded in arranging a meeting with an amazing contact.

What now? How do you make the most of this conversation—while still keeping things casual and comfortable?

As always, it’s just a matter of being prepared. Here’s a three-part process for your next meeting that’ll make sure you get the advice you need and make a great impression .

1. Warm Up

People love to talk about themselves, so when you first sit down, let them! Get the conversation going by asking your contact something about his or her experiences thus far—something he or she knows all about. Some good places to begin:

• How did you get your start in this field?
• What’s it like working at your company?
• What projects are you working on right now?
• What’s your opinion on [exciting development in the industry]?

You should also be prepared to chat about yourself, your past experiences, and your career goals. Remember, this meeting isn’t just a time to ask for advice and learn from your contact’s experiences—it’s also a chance to make an impression. For example, don’t be afraid to preface your questions with what you already know. Something like, “It looks like recent developments in the field of nuclear fission are going to be pretty disruptive to the energy industry. How do you think this will affect your company?”

2. Get What You Want

After you’ve made some general conversation, it’s time to move on to what you came for : the advice you can’t get anywhere else.

Before the meeting, think through the insider information you want to learn from this person. What information are you seeking? Is there something you can learn from this person that would be difficult for you to learn on your own? Depending on where you are in the job search process, adjust your questions accordingly.

For example, if you’re still in exploration mode, trying to find out if, say, working for an educational technology startup is for you, then ask questions like:

• How did you choose this company or position over others in your field?
• What is the most rewarding thing about working in this industry? The most challenging?
• My background is in urban planning—how do you think I can best leverage my previous experience for this field?

If you’re further along in your job search and could use some job hunting and interviewing tips for specific companies, don’t be afraid to ask questions like:

• I’m waiting to hear back about interviews for positions—what advice would you give me about how to best prepare?
• What experiences, skills, or personality traits does your company look for in new hires?
• What do you wish you had done differently when you first started at your company?
• What job search advice would you give to someone in my situation?

Of course, you’ll want go with the flow of the conversation —you’re trying to build a relationship, not fire off as many questions as you can. Also remember that what these questions have in common is that they are all seeking advice. Keep it that way. It’s no mystery that you are clearly looking for a new position or career change, and the fastest way to alienate your contact is to ask for a job (or anything along those lines). If your contact offers to forward your resume based on your conversation, then by all means, take advantage of it. But that process is for him or her to initiate, not you.

3. Tap Into Their Network

That said, as you’re wrapping up the meeting, you should ask for recommendations for two or three more people who would be good to talk to as you continue networking. The likelihood someone will take time to chat with you goes up significantly if your initial request comes through a mutual contact, so it’s a fast, easy way to talk to even more people.

The key here is to make your request as specific as possible. This might be counterintuitive, but it actually makes it easier for your contact to think of someone when you say, “Could you recommend a couple more people for me to speak with to learn more about exit opportunities after a career in consulting ?” than to come up with an answer to, “Is there anyone else you would recommend that I speak with?”

To recap: Get the conversation going, know what you want to get out of the meeting, and don’t leave without knowing who you’re contacting next. And don’t forget to follow up with a thank-you note! Better yet, follow up again with an update on your meetings with the people he or she recommended and the results of your job search. After all, your informational interviewees aren’t just useful for their one-time advice—they can become a long-term part of your network.

Photo of informational interview courtesy of Shutterstock .

To read the original article, click here.

by Global Cleveland

Ask a Boss: How Do I Deal With Useless Informational Interviews?

Author: Alison Green

Dear Boss,

I work in a high-profile field that’s extremely hard to break into. As I’ve become more successful, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and ask if they can have some of my time to ask some questions. I’m usually happy to say yes to these requests, and either answer questions via email or through a short phone call.

However, the past few times I’ve become dismayed with some parts of the conversations, and I’m wondering if I should be giving feedback, especially to the recent grads, on what works and doesn’t work with this kind of networking.

For example, I always ask people to email a list of questions to me in advance. I say it’s so I can prepare, but it’s also because I want to make sure they’ve put some thought into what they want to ask. Unfortunately, all too often the questions are impossibly broad (“How do you break into this field?”) or asking basic information (“What are the biggest companies in the industry?”). It feels like a waste of time for me to answer questions they could easily google.

Second, while I love my work and I’m very enthusiastic about what I do, I try to share some of the negatives of this business. For one, most people starting out don’t make very much money. In fact, many people, myself included, do this work part-time at first while working another job. Obviously, that’s not fun to hear, but I feel like that’s the sort of info people want from this kind of informational interview. However, some of these networkers really push back hard when I tell them this — they mention a friend of a friend who was very successful right away, or they express skepticism that I’m telling the truth. Now, nobody has to believe what I say (and I usually respond by saying, “Well, I hope you’re the exception!”) but it feels rude when someone discounts what I’m telling them right off the bat.

Third, I often find that these networkers put too much emphasis on the idea that I’m going to connect them with other people in the industry and create some kind of shortcut to success. I can sometimes make referrals, but I only do that if I think it’s mutually beneficial — not just because someone asks. Recently I had a networker who barely kept up the pretense of wanting to talk to me, but instead seemed way more interested in me as a conduit to other, more important people. Which is naturally insulting.

Finally, while I’m happy to spend 20 minutes on the phone, I can’t do more. And yet half the time people ask me to look over their work and give detailed feedback — something that can take several hours. One college student just assumed that I was going to do that, and acted as though the phone call was a formality. He was very discouraged when I said no, and I was too, because I thought I was helping him by answering questions and clearly he didn’t really care.

I’ve had a string of these experiences lately and it’s making me want to start saying no to people who ask for my time because it’s too frustrating. But I also wonder if there’s an opportunity here for me to circle back and say something like “I really enjoyed speaking with you, but I have some pointers if you do another one of these informational interviews in the future.”

What do you think?

Yeah, there’s a huge epidemic of bad networking out there.

One thing that’s especially common is people asking for informational calls and meetings when what they really mean is, “I’m hoping you will hire me or connect me to someone who will hire me, but since I don’t want to say that outright, I’m pretending I’m seeking more general advice.” Or sometimes, especially with people right out of school, it means, “I heard I should set up these meetings but I don’t really know what I should ask you” — and even then it still usually comes with a side of, “… and I’m hoping this will somehow lead to a job.”

It’s annoying to be on the receiving end of this because it’s a bait-and-switch: You were asked to set aside time to give advice and insight, and that’s what you agreed to, but the person has a different agenda entirely and in many cases isn’t being particularly thoughtful about your time. Part of the blame for this lies with the career-advice industry, which tends to encourage people to do really aggressive networking, and even outright encourages them to frame these requests as “informational interviews.”

For the record, an actual informational interview is for learning about a field you’re new to or otherwise want an insider’s point of view on. They’re for getting information that’s more nuanced than you can find in other places — things like which companies in the field are the best and worst to work for, what the job is really like day-to-day, what kind of salary progression is typical, what a realistic career path might look like, and so forth. There’s huge value to these kinds of conversations, and it’s a shame that more people don’t do them for real.

The other parts of your experience with bad networkers aren’t uncommon either — the pushback when you’re telling people something they don’t want to hear, and the presumptuousness about how much they can ask you for. Those two things seem to be most common with students and recent grads, and I suspect it’s an effect of them not yet having had a chance to calibrate their norms about how the work world operates. That said, there’s definitely some plain old selfishness in there too, especially when you consider that there are plenty of people in that stage of life who don’t conduct themselves that way.

So, what can you do? First, it’s great that you’re asking people to send you their questions ahead of time. (When I do that, I actually find that about a third of the requesters are never heard from again, presumably because they didn’t want to take the time to do it, despite being okay with asking me for my time.) But if people send back questions that are overly broad or that they could answer for themselves with five minutes of googling, it’s fine to say something like, “You know, these are pretty fundamental things about the field that you’ll be able to easily find online. Because my schedule tends to be so tight, I’m going to suggest you do that first. Once you do, if you have more nuanced questions that you can’t find answers to online, I’d be glad to set up some time to talk.”

And then with people who you do talk to and who end up committing other faux pas, yes, say something about it! After all, they’re asking you for advice on breaking into your field, and this is relevant advice. You could frame it this way: “Can I give you some advice on something you haven’t asked about but that I think will be useful to know? I was glad to talk to you, but you had asked me for an informational interview when I think you were looking more for a foot in the door. It’s generally not a good idea to ask for one when you’re hoping for the other, so I’d recommend just being really up front with people about what you’re hoping for from them.” Or, “You pushed back pretty hard on some of what I told you. I know it’s tough to hear X when you’re hoping for Y, but I’d really go into these conversations with an open mind since you’re asking people for the benefit of their experience and advice.”

With people who ask you for something more than you’re willing to do, like giving feedback on their work or rewriting their résumé, just be direct about it: “I’m happy to answer a few questions about the field, but my schedule is pretty busy and I can’t do more.” Or even, “What you’re asking for would take several hours to do well, so I have to say no to that.” If you’d feel more comfortable adding more of an explanation, you can say, “My schedule is in triage mode right now” (I get a ton of use out of that phrase) — but you don’t need to do that.

And really, these are people who are looking for connections and help finding work — and yet they’re inadvertently turning off their targets! It’s a kindness to let them know.

To read the original article, click here.

by Global Cleveland

4 Things Networking Can Help You Do (Besides Get a Job)

Author: Lily Zhang

How many times have you been told how important networking is? Plenty , I’m sure. So, at this point, you know that who you know can be the difference between you getting that new gig or not.

But, if that’s not motivation enough for you to go out and meet new people, here are four more ways networking can help you, beyond just growing your network in preparation for you next big career opportunity.

1. Gather Info on the Industry

Whether you’re changing industries or furthering your knowledge of your current one, networking and conducting informational interviews are a great way to figure out what’s going on in your field of interest.

Ask people you meet or sit down with about their recent challenges and accomplishments or about trends they’re seeing in their work. In particular, if something big has recently happened in your industry, see what your conversation partner thinks of the impact it might have on the field as a whole. You’ll get a much broader perspective if you expand the conversation beyond your own friends and officemates.

2. Learn From the Wins (and Mistakes) of Others

Sometimes it can be difficult to get people talking, even if you’re meeting one-on-one and not at some large awkward networking event. If this is happening to you, try asking the person you’re networking with about his or her successes and failures. Of course, you don’t want to say, “Tell me about a time you failed”—so try asking if, looking back on his career, if there’s anything he would do differently, or if there’s anything she would definitely recommend to people just starting out in the field.

Don’t feel weird asking about personal experiences. There’s plenty to be learned from the achievements and mistakes of others, and people love to talk about themselves.

3. Get Free Career Advice

Another bonus of networking is the chance to get some free career advice. Chatting with more experienced professionals in your industry of interest gives you the chance to ask them what they think of the career moves you’ve been mulling over.

Aside from getting good advice ( here’s how to know if it’s not ), it’s also a great way to show people your admiration. You wouldn’t be asking for advice if you didn’t respect their opinions, right?

4. Bounce Ideas Off People

You can also take the advice seeking a step further and bounce ideas off of people you meet through networking. Maybe you have an ambitious work-related project that you want to pitch to your boss or a presentation you’re thinking about submitting to an upcoming conference. Seeing what other industry professionals have to say can help you refine your argument and think through weak points.

This is also a great way to show off your skills a bit. Sharing some of your ideas gives you an opportunity to talk about your expertise and the issues that you care about. It’s usually easier to talk about your ideas than it is to talk about yourself, so if you feel weird tooting your own horn, this can be a good strategy.

Bottom line: There’s no excuse to not be networking. You stand to benefit from it no matter what stage of your career you’re in. And, if none of these four reasons appeal to you, consider this final perk of networking: helping people. Maybe you won’t directly benefit this time around, but helping someone else out has its own intrinsic value.

Photo courtesy of Nana B Agyei .

by Global Cleveland

How to Ask for an Informational Interview (and Get a “Yes”)

Author: Elliott Bell

The informational interview is the secret tool everyone should have in their back pocket. A hybrid of an amazing networking opportunity, an info-session, and a job interview, it can give anyone looking for a job or pondering a career change insider scoop (not to mention a much-needed morale boost).

The problem is that these opportunities aren’t advertised anywhere, typically require a lot of work on your end to make happen, and, in most cases, mean you have to convince strangers why they should take time out of their day to help you.

But with the right approach, you can land these interviews (and maybe even a job). Here’s my advice for finding and approaching potential contacts and getting them to say yes—every time.

Find the Right People

This may seem obvious, but choosing who you approach can make all the difference in hearing back.

Start by making a list of companies you’d love to work at and of job titles or positions you’d be interested in. While people who fit on either list are good, someone who works for your dream company and has your dream role is where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

That said, it’s important to consider what the person does at the company and the size of the company—you want to target people who are in an aspirational role, but who aren't so high up that they won’t have time to meet with you. I may want to talk to the CMO of a major company, but I can probably learn more talking to the marketing director of a smaller company. Also, look for people you have some sort of connection with—if someone went to your college or has a shared connection, he or she will be more likely to want to meet with you.

I prefer using LinkedIn to find people, but then reaching out over email—it’s easier for people to respond to, and you won’t look like LinkedIn spam. (Try our tips for tracking down someone’s email address.)

Perfect the Art of the Ask

Any good cold email has two things: a clear message (why you're reaching out), and an easy-to-understand ask (the action you want the recipient to take). Here’s a simple formula that checks both boxes and that will work most of the time:

1. Start by Asking for Help

This sounds obvious (and, OK, a little weird), but it’s a proven fact that people love to feel like they are helping others. So, if you literally start by saying, “I’d love your help,” or “I hope you’ll be able to help me out...” your chances of getting a positive response go up significantly.

2. Be Clear

Ask for something very specific, and make it as easy as possible for the person to say yes. Saying, “I'd love to know more about what you do and how you got your start” is okay, but doesn't tell someone how much of his or her time you’re after or what you’re really suggesting. Instead, try something like, “I'd love to take you to a quick coffee so I can hear your perspective on this industry and what it's like to work at your company. I’ll actually be in your area next week and would be happy to meet you wherever is convenient for you.”

3. Have a Hook

A great way to increase your chance of landing the interview is to demonstrate why you really want to meet with this person. Do you admire her career path? Do you think the work he’s currently doing at company X stands out as the best? Maybe you have a shared connection and think she would be a great voice of wisdom. Don’t be afraid to share why you are specifically reaching out to this person. The more personalized your ask feels, the greater chance of success you’ll have.

4. Be Very Considerate

Remember that, in asking for an informational interview, you’re literally asking someone to put his or her work on hold to help you. Show your contact you understand this by saying, “I can only imagine how busy you must get, so even 15-20 minutes would be so appreciated.”

5. Make Sure You Don't Seem Like You’re Looking for a Job (Even if You Are)

If you sound like you’re really just looking for a job, there’s a good chance this person will push you to HR or the company’s career page. So be sure to make it clear that you really want to talk to this person to learn about his or her career history and perspective on the job or industry. After you meet and make a great impression is when you can mention the job hunt.

Follow Up, and Be Pleasantly Persistent

If you don’t hear back right away, don’t worry. People are busy, and sometimes these things slip to the bottom of a person’s to-do list. The key is to not just give up. If you haven’t heard back in a week, reply to your first email and politely ask if your contact has had a chance to read your previous email. Also, use this opportunity to reiterate how much it would mean to you to have 15 minutes to learn from him or her.

I personally believe that it’s your responsibility to continue to follow up (as nicely as possible) every couple of weeks until you’ve heard an answer one way or the other. Some would say that after one or two tries, you may run the risk of upsetting the person—but I say that sometimes, persistence pays off. At the end of the day, it’s really up to you and your personal comfort level.

That said, once you shoot off a few emails, you’ll see that most people are happy to help (hey, people love talking about themselves). The next step? Getting ready for the meeting. Read on for our best advice on acing the informational interview.

• 5 Keys to Acing Your Informational Interview
• How Not to Annoy Your Contacts When You’re Asking for Help
• 5 Tips for Non-Awkward Informational Interviews

Photo of courtesy of Unsplash .

To read the original article, click here.

by Global Cleveland