Informational Interview
What is it?
Are you interested in learning what the ins and outs of a career are really like? Or perhaps you want advice on career paths or are interested in learning more about a company or organization. You can find out this information by asking somebody with firsthand experience in an informational interview.
Informational interviews are not job interviews, and instead are used to gather information on a variety of job-related topics, including:
- Getting a better feel for whether a career of interest is truly a good fit
- Exploring different career paths within an industry of interest
- Finding out how to successfully prepare for a given career
- Building a network of contacts in the intended career field
- Learning more about how to be a successful applicant at a particular organization
Informational interviews can serve multiple purposes in your career planning and job search processes. Here are some additional resources that you might find helpful as you prepare to interview a professional in your career field.
The Ultimate Guide to an Informational Interview Links to an external site.
3 Steps to a Perfect Informational Interview Links to an external site.
Video: Designing Your Career: The Informational Interview
Click the Play icon to begin.
If the video doesn't appear, follow this direct link: Designing Your Career: The Informational Interview Links to an external site. (03:08 min.)
Use the direct link above to open the video in YouTube to display the video captions, expand the video, and navigate the video using the transcript.
Prepare for an Informational Interview
Taking what you learned about using informational interviews for career exploration, prepare for an informational interview. Write up answers to the following in a document and turn it in for this assignment:
1. Who would you like to have an informational interview with (a realistic, real-world contact)?
2. List at least 5 questions you would ask this person.
3. What are some ways you could work your professional and academic background into the conversation?
4. Reach out to this person via email or phone and see if they would be open to an informational interview.
5. Think of a public figure who is not a realistic, real-world contact (in other words, someone you'll probably or certainly never get to meet, like a living former President or CEO, a now-deceased legendary historical figure or businessperson, a culture-changing innovator, etc.). Write the name of this person down, and come up with 5 questions you'd ask this person and list them in your document. (Would any of those questions be interesting to add to #2 above?)
Conduct an Informational Interview
Using what you know about informational interviews, schedule and conduct an informational interview with your internship supervisor or another professional currently working in a career field that you’re considering or planning to pursue. Your interviewee should not be an immediate family member, another student, or one of your professors.
Take notes during your informational interview. If you prefer to take notes after your conversation to be more present during the conversation you can do that as well. Using these notes, write a response to the prompts below.
1. Who did you interview? Which of the above purposes was your reason for selecting this individual? Do you feel that you accomplished that purpose? Why or why not?
2. What questions did you ask your interviewee?
3. What did you learn from this experience that helped you better understand your career path or yourself? What was your biggest overall takeaway?
4. What did this teach you about networking? Is there anything you would do differently as you approach your next informational interview?
Submit your answers to the questions using this assignment.