Landing a New Job: What is Informational Interviewing?

Informational interviewing is when you go out and talk to someone who is in a similar position to one you are contemplating. It could be that you are considering a certain career or job or company. You need to know more about your specific area of interest.

The term informational interviewing is a mouthful. Don’t worry about that. I am only using it to make sure the search engines can find us, because technically that is what you call it. You can also call it asking questions.

Let’s say that you’ve been driving 1969 Chargers all your life. Or at least in the summer time. But over a period of time, the 1970 Cutlass 422 has caught your fancy. Before you buy one however, you want to know more about it. It’s highly unlikely that you would just go out and buy one before you did some research. Even if you give yourself a thumbs up after performing general research into the 442, you still need to research out specific cars. You know this. I don’t have to tell you. Hell would freeze over before you buy the 442 without doing the research.

If you perform that much leg work prior to buying a car, don’t you think you should log some time to investigate the career, line of work and company that will provide satisfaction and food and rent and bills and vacations and, well, that 442? Sure you do!

A few cool things about informational interviewing:

• You are not interviewing for a job
• You are learning a ton of stuff
• A lot of people are getting to know you
• You are building a network of connections

Stay tuned and look for future posts beginning with Landing a New Job: Informational Interviewing…