An informational interview (also known as informal interview, informational meeting, coffee chat) is a meeting where you (the candidate) seeks information about a particular job or a career path. It is part of a broad category of activities called networking.
There is one simple trick to making the most out of your informational interviews: Preparation. And in this guide, we will show you the ins and outs of how to prepare in the best way possible.
Understanding Informational Interviews
It’s important to note that any conversation within a professional context you have with anyone can be considered an informational interview.
In fact, Wikipedia states the following: “Sources of informational interviews include a knowledge seeker’s friends and family, school alumni, fellow members of a community, social, non-profit or religious organization, former co-workers, partners and clients, professional acquaintances, and even total strangers, including industry leaders.”
Of course, the quality of the source, and their proximity to your career path is of utmost importance. Pick how you spend your time wisely, and learn to distinguish between facts and opinions.
Objectives of an Informational Interview
You have three broad objectives:
- Information: Gather information about jobs, industries or career paths.
- Insight: Develop insights about jobs or career paths – see if you like your options.
- Relationship: Generate potential contacts for immediate or future referrals.
Preparing for an Informational Interview
Who to Ask for an Informational Interview
Theoretically, anyone. In practice, you need to find and connect with people that can help you along your career development journey. This means identifying individuals who can:
- Teach you about their job or company, as they have substantial experience
- Give you insider scoop on an industry or company
- Connect you with other insiders and persons of influence
- Have hiring capacity (hiring managers and human resources)
We recommend you start by connecting either current or former employees of companies you are interested in. And remember: reaching out to new people can be effective, but it is more effective to connect with individuals through your existing network first. Start from your existing network and branch out.
What do you need to know before an informational interview?
Before you get started, it’s crucial that you gather essential information to make sure you have a productive and meaningful conversation.
Remember that the person(s) meeting with you are taking time out of their busy day, and in principle, doing you a favor. Therefore, it’s crucial that you respect their time.
This means: asking them basic questions about simple facts that you could have easily uncovered with a Google search are a taboo. Don’t do that!
Before rolling in, make sure you are prepared.
Five steps to prepare for and complete an informational interview
- Research the Interviewee(s): Learn about the person(s) you’ll be interviewing. Browse their online profiles. Research their background, experience, and current role. This is extremely important toward your relationship objective. Understanding their background can help you craft good questions, build rapport and have a pleasant, memorable conversation. Researching the interviewee(s) is more important than researching the company or industry, because in your interviewee(s)’ mind, they come before the company or industry (human nature).
- Research the Company or Industry: Get familiar with the company or industry in which the interviewee(s) works. Look for recent articles, news, industry trends. Find out who their competitors are. Browse through the company’s website and read about their mission, values, and culture. Having this knowledge will make you stand out, and help people take you seriously.
- Prepare Good Questions: Develop a list of thoughtful, worthwhile and relevant questions to ask. These questions are not only to help you gather the information. They are also to demonstrate your curiosity, enthusiasm, and level of subject matter or industry knowledge. These questions are almost like humble brags – one message on the surface, another implied message beneath.
- Study Interview Etiquette: Become intimately familiar with proper interview etiquette. This includes but is not limited to, dress code, punctuality, professionalism, courtesy, respectful communication, language patterns, posture, sitting distance, and even duration of eye contact. There is a long list of verbal and non-verbal communication rules you’ll need to master not just for informational, but for all interviews. (See our courses and events for more)
- Arrange Logistics: Confirm the date, time and location of the interview. For virtual meetings, make sure you have your setup working and do a test run. For physical interviews, sending a car to pick them up or picking up the coffee tab are good but not required courtesies. Be careful, however: In some situations paying for anything for an HR official or hiring manager can cause legal issues.
Example Questions to Ask in an Informational Interview
Good questions are questions that are useful to you. Meaning, the questions you ask should relate to one of the three objectives we highlighted above.
Exploring questions that delve into the interviewee(s)’ experience, industry insights, and honest advice. Here are some good questions to ask in an informational interview:
| Question | Objective | Implication |
| Can you share how you got to your current role? | Insight | Gain insights into their career trajectory and experiences. How people get where they get is usually full of interesting stories. |
| What do you find most rewarding about working in [industry/company]? | Insight | Understand their motivations, values, and satisfaction with their current role or industry. Give them a safe space to complain, and you’ll learn things you’d never otherwise. |
| Could you describe a typical day or project in your role? | Insight | Learn about daily responsibilities, tasks, and challenges of their job. There can be vast differences between jobs that have the same title. It’s good to learn how things really work. |
| How do you see [industry/company] evolving in the next few years? | Information | Industry insiders usually have projects they are working on or strategies that have important implications. |
| What advice would you give to someone starting out in [industry/company]? | Information | This is asked to gain practical advice and tips. |
| What do you think REALLY sets [company] apart from its competitors? | Insight & Relationship | When you ask this question be sure to first talk about the official value proposition or USP (unique sales proposition) of the company. It shows you understand the basics, and want to get down to the behind the scenes insights. |
| How do people network and build professional relationships in [industry/company]? | Insight | Every industry is different. Every company is even more different. Learning how people approach building relationships helps expand your own network. |
| What opportunities for growth and advancement exist within [industry/company]? | Information | Learn about potential career paths and advancement opportunities. |
| Can you share any recent projects you’ve been involved in that you found particularly exciting? | Information | Again, you’re getting the inside scoop. Can be a very useful question for learning where a company is going and whether or not they are growing. |
| How do you maintain work-life balance? | Relationship | This is all about giving the other person room to complain. |
| What do you think is the most important skill for me to develop? | Crucial Information | This question is extremely important and ties with our warm application process. |
How to Make the Most Out of Your Informational Interview
In the ideal outcome, landing and acing an informational interview would mean you get a job offered on the spot.
In most cases, however, the informational interview simply gets you one step closer to your goal. Sometimes you develop insights. Other times you generate new contacts, or discover other insiders to connect with. And even other times you get official referrals to specific positions, enabling you to bypass the grueling application process.
What matters is that you prepare for the best, but assume the worst. Treat it as if it is an interview that can lead to a job, and be ready to answer any impromptu questions hurled at you. But also assume that, when it’s all said and done, you’ll simply part ways without much tangible movement toward your goals.
Here’s the key: Your informational interviews will typically NOT solve your career problems. They will, however, give you insights, build connections, and show you what actions you need to next take to solve your career problems.
FAQ About Informational Interviews
Yes you can take notes, but it’s important to pay attention to who you are talking to and follow proper etiquette. If you can record the conversation and get permission for it, this can also be helpful. But make sure you ask for explicit permission if you do so, and check with the laws in your state.
Let the interviewee(s) decide. Be implacably respectful of the interviewee’s time. Arrive early. Don’t drag on the conversation near the end, make sure it can be wrapped up easily.
They can be time-consuming, both for the interviewee and the interviewer. Moreover, unlike normal job interviews, there isn’t a clear objective. While there are many good potential outcomes, nothing is guaranteed.
Informational interviews are more like planting seeds and less like harvesting. Seeking immediate job offers or expecting direct networking connections for immediate gain are not appropriate goals. These can happen, but counter-intuitively, they happen only when sought after indirectly.
Remember, you are building a relationship, developing insights and gathering information. Focus on that. If you do those well, your chances of getting a job or a good insider connection is significantly higher.
It’s unlikely that something really wrong will take place – like being blacklisted or canceled on social media because of a poorly conducted interview, or being arrested and fined for getting into a fistfight. That being said, even when nothing overt goes wrong, the opportunity cost of a missed opportunity is tremendous.
Typically speaking, a superficial exchange is a failed informational interview. If you don’t prepare and follow the steps outlined, you may miss opportunities, fail to gain valuable insights, and basically waste both of your time. Both of you will leave with a general feeling of dissatisfaction or disinterest.
Your Next Steps With Informational Interviews
Mastering the art of preparing for an informational interview is a valuable skill. It can help gain invaluable insights, make meaningful professional connections, and gain the insider scoop on crucial aspects of the company or industry you’re after.
By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll make the most of every informational interview. Of course, informational interviews should only be one part of your growth strategy, and it’s more important to get well rounded in all aspects of your career development process than to become an expert in just one.
Remember: What you learn through our resources will make a tremendous difference. But nothing you learn – from us or from anyone else – will replace the crucial active ingredient of your genuine curiosity, which should drive your career.
Follow your excitement. Make sure your career emerges out of acting on your excitement.
When you approach your networking and the informational interviews you conduct from a place of genuine curiosity and excitement, it works out much better.