You're a college student embarking on a career path. Talking to people in that field just
makes sense. Yet most students never do. You trust your professors, textbooks, or romantic
notions about professions gleaned from TV or movies. Consider supplementing that
secondhand knowledge with informational interviewing -- the ultimate networking technique
for all college students.
"One of the most positive things students get from conducting informational interviews
with people in the fields they are interested in is seeing what the career is like from
someone actually doing the job, not just reading about it in some article," says
Robert Ashodian, who conducted several informational interviews before graduating
and landing his job in human resources at Arthur Andersen, Tampa.
Informational interviewing is exactly what it sounds like -- interviewing designed to
yield the information you need to choose a career path, learn how to break in, and
find out if you have what it takes to succeed. It's a highly focused conversation with
someone in your career field who can provide you with key information you need to
launch your career, often including a critique of your resume.
"I'm big on encouraging students to use the very underutilized strategy: of informational
interviewing," says Peter Vogt, president of Career Planning Resources, Eden Prairie,
MN. "It's interesting because many students view informational interviewing/networking
as bothering people or, worse, 'sucking up' to them. One student I spoke to
referred to it as 'cheesy,' and said she and her friends did it only as 'a last resort.'
In the reality of the world of work, of course, networking and informational
interviewing go on constantly, and most jobs are landed through these informal channels."
Because they are exploratory, informational interviews are particularly effective
for college students, who can use them to illuminate their career path in several ways,
as discussed by students and recent graduates of Stetson University, DeLand, FL:
You can learn about the realities of the work world and what to expect.
Michelle Abrisch, a Stetson MBA graduate, dreamed in college of owning her own
business and conducted informational interviews with entrepreneurs. "The experience
was eye-opening to say the least," Abrisch says. "Until interviewing the folks I talked to,
I had an almost romantic notion of being in business for one's self. After our discussions,
I had a better picture of the trials and tribulations, heartaches and triumphs involved."
Based on what she learned, Abrisch chose to learn the ropes from the corporate world
before venturing into her own enterprise.
You may discover opportunities that are available in a given field, including jobs and career
paths you may not have thought of or known existed. Management grad J.P. Politano
notes that before he conducted one of his informational interviews he was completely unsure
of what kind of job he wanted. "Speaking with my interviewee made me realize that many
of my points of view, experiences, and desires pointed me to a field like consulting, but I
had never known it until we talked. It was as if I was introduced for the first time to
something that I had been seeking for years, but was unsure of what it was," Politano says.
Your dream career can be affirmed and turn out to be everything you thought it would be.
Although one of then Stetson senior Trinity Hundredmark's three attorney interviewees
offered a jaded view of the law profession, the interviewing process showed her law
was the right choice for her. "Since my interviewees were all of different ages and
genders, I got a grasp of the feelings each one had for the field," Hundredmark says.
"They made me realize how I would like to be as an attorney."
On the other hand, the career you thought always wanted may turn out to be wrong for you.
Many jobseekers learn through informational interviews that the career's average salary,
hours, working conditions, or opportunities for advancement are not what they imagined.
"I actually thought of going into law," says then Stetson marketing senior Tammy Miller, "but I
decided against it," partly, Miller says, "from hearing an attorney's firsthand experience that
they have such crazy hours that can be very stressful."
If you are unsure about which career path to follow, you can obtain the information you need to choose.
Or you might narrow a wide field down to a specific niche. "Informational interviews helped me to
learn more about what areas of accounting I may want to enter and those areas that I don't,"
says Tina Markoff, then a senior accounting major at Stetson.
You can glean information you need to strategize entry into your chosen career.
"This creative yet extremely simple tool gave me inside information that I could not have
gained during a conventional interview," says then senior finance major Michelle Dass, who
was offered job interviews by two of the employers she interviewed. "This vote of confidence
is priceless to me now that I plan to buckle down and look for a job."
You gain access to information that not many other entry-level candidates will have.
"You get a step ahead of others you will be competing with in the marketplace," observes
Samantha Nolan, a marketing specialist for UnitedHealthcare, Columbus, OH.
At a minimum, you can count each informational interviewee as a valuable member of your
network. You can forge strong and memorable bonds with your interviewees, who
become invested in your career, remember you, and are eager to hear about your progress.
"I still keep in touch with my contacts, which got me my first internship working for
Convergys Corporation, one of the companies at which I conducted an informational
interview," says Ore-Tayo Funsho, a senior. Ellen Russell, career consultant at the MBNA
Career Education Center at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, recalls a similar
experience: "Before I graduated from grad school, I conducted several informational
interviews at Chicago colleges." After she landed a job at Georgetown, one of the
Chicago schools called to strongly encourage her to apply. "If I hadn't already
secured a job, I would have been on cloud nine!" Russell declares. "Informational
interviews pay off."
Working people are usually delighted to serve as informational interview subjects.
"People love to talk about themselves, and most want to help," says Marcia Merrill,
career advisor at Loyola College, Baltimore, MD. "I always tell my students it's a win-win situation."
Choose your interviewees carefully, though. It's often best to interview someone in a
position similar to what you'll have right after college. "If you want to learn about what
an entry-level associate will be doing on a day-to-day basis, talk with an entry-level
person," cautions Stephen Magennis, a benefits analyst for Hewitt Associates, Orlando.
Magennis recalls that he mistakenly booked an interview with an eight-year veteran of
one firm. "While it was nice to hear about how things had grown and what was in
store for the future, the person could not accurately answer some of the more in-depth
questions I had about day-to-day operations."
Because the atmosphere of the informational interview is relatively relaxed compared to
that of a job interview, you can bolster your confidence so that you exude self-assurance
when you interview for a job opening. "Students who are quite shy to set up job
interviews feel much more comfortable meeting under these circumstances,"
observes Rachel Goodman, director of the career development center at Maharishi
University of Management, Fairfield, IA. "One woman, for example, became more
confident in her job search after meeting with an individual in a position similar to the
one she was considering. She felt that she could then say that she was clearly
qualified for the job," Goodman notes.
"Informational interviewing was like a ticket to the real world of business formality," observes
Pulat Tillaboyev, a senior finance major who left his native Uzbekistan to study in Florida.
"I had a chance to 'get into the interviewer's skin' to get more prepared for job interviews."
Laura Nigro, a market researcher for the Automobile Association of America, Heathrow,
FL, echoes the job-interview preparation advantage. "Informational interviews better
prepared me to ask questions when I was interviewed for the job I'm in now," Nigro says.
Learning to ask good question requires research. "Ideally, [students] should prepare
specific questions that indicate substantive knowledge of an industry or career path,
with the majority of the questions focused on topics that cannot be researched on the
Internet," cautions Janet Scarborough of Bridgeway Career Development, Seattle,
WA. "Busy professionals are annoyed by questions like, 'What is the median income in
your field?' when such information is readily available from Web sites," Scarborough advises.
Job and internship offers often result from informational interviews, even though getting
offers is not their purpose. "Whenever we assign students to complete an Informational
Interview as part of a class assignment, they often come back to class announcing the
job offers they received," says Nancy Nish, director of the career center at the University of
Nebraska at Omaha. Michelle Watson, career counselor at Lehigh University, Lehigh, PA,
has a similar tale: "I had a sophomore finance major set up informational interviews with
various alumni at TV/broadcasting networks," Watson recalls. "She ended up landing a
great internship at 'Good Morning America' and even got to meet Diane Sawyer."
Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search
terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Be sure to take advantage of all the career networking tools, articles, and resources
found in our The Art of Career Networking
section of Quintessential Careers.
