How to Ace an Informational Interview
You’ve got an informational interview confirmed? Great. You have no idea what to talk about? No panic. Let’s set you up to ace your informational interview. We will see how to structure it, which questions to ask and which to avoid, and how to make the most of it.
The road towards a successful job or career change is paved with great informational interviews. So, you’ve secured an informational interview with someone who can give you insights about the industry / company / role you want to break into. Congratulations! Yet your joy soon gives way to panic because OMG it’s tomorrow and you have no idea what to talk about and how to make a good impression. Good news is that it feels like this only before the first one. The more you do, the better you will get at it. And another good news is that there is a simple and effective system to ace an informational interview.
My approach to informational interviews comes from my own experience, as well as “The 2-Hour Job Search” by Steve Dalton and career change workshops with Daniel Porot.
First things first, things NOT to say in an informational interview are SO important that they deserve a special note before we move any further.
Don’ts of an informational interview
Four things that kill an informational interview are the following.
Asking “Can you help me find a job?” Even if this question is burning your tongue, heaven forbid you to ask it directly. You do not want to scare your counterpart away. Of course, if you are not in targeting, but in an active job-searching mode, your final objective is to convert an informational interview into a job interview, but you need to earn your counterpart’s trust and empathy before she feels comfortable enough to help you further. Throughout the interview, make it crystal clear that you are here only to gather information and insights.
Spending too much time on research-based questions. They can be seen as a too obvious attempt to impress. You have done your research, that’s necessary and that will help your credibility, but don’t make your research the focus of the conversation. The hero of the informational interview is your counterpart.
Talking too much yourself. Again, it’s not about you. The golden ratio for the informational interview should be 10% you talking, 90% letting your counterpart talk.
Going overtime unless your counterpart explicitly offers you extra time. Being too long is a sign of neediness, and we know that neediness is the biggest interview killer.
Informational Interview Structure
I have found that the three-phase structure proposed by Steve Dalton in “The 2-Hour Job Search” really works, so I have summarised it in the chart below.
In the first phase - the small talk - you build rapport; the second - questions and answers - is the main and the longest part where your conversation ideally grows in depth and empathy and your counterpart evolves from expert to mentor; the final one - next steps - lays a good foundation for a successful follow-up.
The beauty of this structure and the TIARA algorithm is that it’s so easy to remember. Some informational interviews are well planned, others are pure serendipity: it can be your neighbor on a flight, a random person you bump into at a networking event, or a parent at the Christmas breakfast at school that can give your career an unexpected twist. Talking to strangers sometimes pays off handsomely. You never know. So if you feel that an idle conversation is turning into an informational interview, just put your imaginary TIARA on and ace it.
Phase I - Small Talk
Just as you need a warm-up before a good workout, you need to start your informational interview with some small talk. For a thirty-minute informational interview, this first phase should be no longer than five minutes. You use it to build rapport, gauge your counterpart’s mood and energy, and get some context for the rest of your conversation. Key here is genuine interest in your counterpart and letting her talk whatever she wants to talk about initially.
Examples of small talk questions and objectives behind them:
“How is your day going?” helps discover your counterpart’s mood and energy.
“What projects are you working on?” demonstrates your interest, uncovers some valuable context for the main part and helps you gauge your counterpart’s passion for his job and/or side projects.
“Can you tell me about your background and how you came to work in this role / for this company?” is a version of the “tell me about yourself” question that will help you discover 1001 ways to get into the field/industry/ company/role you are targeting, see how professional or personal, brief or lengthy your counterparts seems to be and mirror your own introduction in time and attitude.
You move to Phase II by thanking your counterpart and mentioning that you have prepared some questions.
Phase II - Questions and Answers
The questions in Phase II should steer the conversation towards more rapport, depth, and empathy and keep a good level of energy in your counterpart. The answers give material not only for the rest of the present conversation but also for other informational or job interviews you will have in the future.
Be sure to listen not only with your ears but with your hands and take good notes of your conversation - manually.
T - Trends
“What trends are impacting your business the most right now?”
“How has your business evolved since your started?”
“How do you expect the industry will look like in the next few years?”
You came for expertise, you need to show your counterpart that you treat her as an expert, before moving on to more in-depth and personal questions. As you go on with more informational interviews, the answers you have received here will make your future iterations of trend questions more credible.
I - Insights
In the previous part, you have made your counterpart feel that you value his expertise. Here your questions here are inviting for more personal disclosure. You walk your talk and keep the conversation focused not on you and your job search, but on your counterpart and her insights and experience. You keep your word, and it helps build trust.
“What do you like best in your job?” helps you check if you would really like this job and verify what about the job really attracts you.
“What do you like least in your job?” helps identify the difficulties and evaluate whether you can tolerate them.
“What are the key tasks, priorities, and challenges of your role?” helps you discover or confirm the key tasks, missions, priorities of the job, gain credibility for future informational interviews or cover letters, and fine-tune either your target or your pitch.
“What’s been your most valuable experience at your employer so far and why?” gives useful context for targeting and further questions.
“If you had to attribute your success to one or a few critical skills and talents, what would it be?” helps you inventory your skills, value your relevant experiences, measure the gap between your profile and a profile needed to succeed in the job.
A - Advice
Advice questions encourage your counterpart to put herself in your shoes, bringing empathy into the picture. You are trying to steer the conversation from generic statements to concrete actions. The perception you seek to achieve is that you value your counterpart not only as an expert but also as a mentor. And if in the process your counterpart starts seeing you as a mentee, it will increase the likelihood that she will help you further.
“If you were in my position, what would you be doing right now to prepare yourself for a career in this field / taking over this role?”
"What you wish you’d known before starting in this role?”
“In hindsight, what would be your actions within the first 100 days in the role?”
R - Resources
The ideal outcome of these questions would be referrals - to help your network and increase your number of leads, to avoid cold calls when securing more informational interviews. But because you are not 100% sure whether your counterpart is ready to share with your her network, your resource question should be purposely vague.
“What resources should I be sure to look into next?”
From here, the conversation can go in different ways:
if your counterpart does offer a referral, thank her, promise to reach out to the contact immediately, and to follow up with your counterpart in a couple of weeks to let her know how it went.
if your counterpart offers no referral but asks in return, which resources you are looking for, stay non-threatening and keep to nonhuman resources: publications to keep current on the industry, valuable pieces of research, and ways to learn more about the business and master its vernacular.
A - Assignment
This part can be skipped if you are cautious of time. But if time is not an issue, questions in this part can help you discover the projects and initiatives where you might fit in. It will help fine-tune your targeting, as well as your future cover letters and interviews.
“Which projects have increased in popularity recently in your industry/business?”
“What projects have you done in your role that you felt added the most value?”
Phase III - Next Steps
Wrapping up is the easiest if your counterpart has offered you a referral: as said, you thank her, promise to reach out to the contact immediately, and to follow up with your counterpart in a couple of weeks to let her know how it went.
If your counterpart is not ready to give you a referral, you conclude by thanking your counterpart for her time, stating that
(1) you will take a few days to process the information: it demonstrates that your stick to your promise to keep the conversation about insight and advice and gives your counterpart a breather to decide whether to share referrals and reach out to them.
(2) asking if it is OK to reach back to her to get her recommendations for how best to proceed from there: chances are your counterpart will say “yes” to this question, so it will give you legitimacy to reach out again and get a second chance for a referral.
After the interview
You make sure you're following up through and through:
with a thank you note to your counterpart - immediately
with the referral, if you have been given one - immediately
with your counterpart in a few days, as you promised - set yourself a reminder either to update her how it went with the referral, or use your second chance to get one.
Art: Mandana Sadat