[2021-02-25] Informational interview
Ten years ago, I wrote a post for my first blog, Café Jen, called "The informational interview: YOU ask the questions." It's the post I come back to more than any other. To this day, when I mentor people who are looking to advance in their careers, I almost always recommend that they conduct informational interviews.
I took inspiration for the idea from the book The 250 Job Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked, which included a section on the concept. Author Peter Veruki explained that "An informational interview is simply a meeting that you arrange to talk to someone in a field, industry, or company that interests you." He recommended the strategy, in particular, for people entering the job market or changing careers.
I have proposed it to anyone looking for an employment opportunity, whether just starting out or well established in their career, and whether trying to enter a new field or remaining in their current line of work.
Veruki identified three benefits of an informational interview: (1) they help job seekers to increase their comfort talking with people in a particular field, (2) they provide insight into the kinds of topics that might come up in a job interview, and (3) they offer a chance to check compatibility with the organization.
From my experience, informational interviews are helpful in two additional ways. First, they provide job seekers with practical information about competencies they may need to have to work in a specific field. Second, they give job seekers visibility among senior managers in their field of interest.
This visibility can prove to be a stepping stone to a new job, either with the senior person who grants the informational interview or a colleague of that person. That said, job seekers should not go into informational interviews with the aim of securing a position as a result of that discussion; the focus of such meetings should be on obtaining information to help in an employment search. Nevertheless, informational interviews increase a job seeker's visibility, which can lead to future opportunities.
Indeed, visibility is a key factor in career advancement, according to a 1998 study led by Carleton University professor Linda Duxbury—a study I still refer to many years later. Duxbury and her colleagues assessed the perceptions of employees in Canada's Public Service about career development. They found that breadth and visibility were among the most important factors impacting career advancement. In her report, Career Development in the Federal Public Service – Building a World-Class Workforce, Duxbury wrote: "The research indicates that ‘breadth’ of knowledge and experience is one of the most important determinants of career advancement and career success in the knowledge sector." However, she went on to say that, "While breadth may be critical for career development, many employees believe that visibility is essential for career advancement."
In other words, competencies may get you only so far. It may not be enough to have the skills for a position if few people know you exist. An informational interview can help with both parts of the equation: it can offer useful input on the breadth of skills needed in a particular field as well as visibility to at least one senior manager in that field. Once you've met that senior manager, they may remember you the next time one of their colleagues mentions they need to fill a vacancy. The job seeker thereby gains exposure not only to the person they meet but potentially to everyone that person knows.
Veruki recommended that job seekers prepare a list of 10 to 20 questions for the informational interview. In my view, this is way too many questions and suggests a discussion that would go on for much longer than most senior people would have time for. Over the past decade, when proposing the informational interview to people I've mentored, I have recommended the following approach. Email or call the person you wish to meet to request a 15-minute discussion to seek career advice. Most senior people will agree to find 15 minutes in their schedule to talk to someone who is trying to enter or move up in their field, and most people do want to help others. During the informational interview, pose three questions:
- How did you get to where you are in your career?
- What do you look for in prospective employees?
- Is there anyone else I should speak to?
The questions are deliberately open-ended. In response to the first question, a senior person might talk about their education, career path and strategies they used to move up. In answering the second question, they might talk about not only hard skills (such as education, experience, competencies) needed in their field but also soft skills they look for in an ideal employee (such as initiative, team orientation, creativity). The third question helps job seekers tap into the network of the senior person. When I granted informational interviews, I often thought of colleagues who I believed would click with a particular job seeker or who would have additional advice to offer, especially for people interested in changing careers.
If the senior person goes on beyond the 15 minutes—sometimes not getting past the first question—it's the job seeker's responsibility to say, "I did commit to taking only 15 minutes of your time." Once they point this out, they should pause to take direction from the senior person. Nine times out of ten the senior person will say, "Oh I have a few more minutes" and they'll continue the interview. If time is short, the job seeker should conclude the conversation by posing the third question. This gives the job seeker additional contacts to continue expanding their network.
Why start with the first question? Because people like to talk about themselves. This was Dale Carnegie's view. In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Carnegie quoted former Harvard president Charles W. Eliot on the secret of a successful business interview. Eliot said: "There is no mystery about successful business intercourse. ... Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that." Carnegie further advised: "So if you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments." So in an informational interview, the job seeker's goal is to do very little talking, to pay rapt attention to the senior person, and to leave the conversation with as much practical advice as possible.
Veruki's final advice to job seekers is to end the informational interview by thanking the senior person and committing to follow up on any leads provided. They should also send a thank-you note one or two days after the meeting.
I would add that job seekers should let the senior person know what valuable advice they took away from the discussion, perhaps through the thank-you note, should provide brief updates from time to time on their job search, and should share resources (such as articles) that would be of interest to the senior person. Successful networking should be a two-way street of give and take.
I recommend informational interviews for one additional reason. It's said that 75% of jobs are never advertised. This is especially true of positions that are filled by deploying someone from one part of the organization to another who is already at the level of the job. By increasing job seekers' visibility as well as their awareness of vacancies that managers may be looking to fill, informational interviews can lead to opportunities—even if that's just to apply to a competition when it opens.
Today's post is a little outside the theme of my current blog, Jenesis, which focuses on my journey with ovarian cancer. However, it was a post I wanted to write. Throughout my cancer treatment, I have had phone calls with people who are trying to advance in their career. This piece has given me an opportunity to pull together advice that I've been honing over the past decade and to complement it with some insights from How to Win Friends and Influence People, which I finally finished reading today.
I also see Jenesis as my space for sharing wisdom that I have gathered over my 50+ years on Earth and my 30+ years in the federal Public Service in addition to my 6+ months as a cancer patient. I've said from the beginning of my cancer journey that I wanted my life to be about more than this disease, as reflected in I am and You are more than. Today's post was a chance to take a break from my role as cancer patient and to reclaim, for a moment, my role as mentor.
