UMass Amherst Alumni Association

Your Career

Career Tips: The Information Interview

(Excerpt from The Complete Idiots Guide to Discovering Your Perfect Career, by Rene Carew '79 EdD, with The American Writers & Artists Institute).  Please do not reprint.

Where do we start!  There are so many benefits to doing interviews with people who are holding jobs that you think you would like to have one day.  The absolute best way to find out about your short list of dream jobs is by doing in-person interviews.  We know that some of you are holding your heads right about now.  You are asking yourself why you need to do this stressful thing.  Try to relax, people love to talk about themselves and that is all you are asking them to do.  You are not asking them for a job.  You are not asking for much of their time.  You are not going to sell yourself to them in this interview.  It’s all about them having a chance to be a mentor for 30 minutes to an hour.  And, they get to reflect on their own career.  Now that is something that people pay a coach to listen to and you are doing it for free.  You actually bring a nice benefit to people you are interviewing – think of that!

Let’s get specific about how YOU benefit from doing these interviews:

• You can ask questions and find out more specifics about an occupation;
•  You get to do a reality check on what you have been reading and researching about this occupation so far;
•  You can learn how this occupation is done in different work and organizational settings;
• You learn how people prepared for this occupation – the training, education and experience it took to get to this point in their career;
• You understand that there may be different routes to preparing yourself for this occupation – you have choices;
• You learn what different organizations are looking for in their employees, and the needs organizations expect people in this occupation to address;
•  You learn what excites and motivates people who are in these careers and see how well that fits with what excites and motivates you;
•  You are developing your network of people in your career field and can tap into this at a later date;
•  You can expand your network by asking the person you are interviewing to refer you to people in other industries, companies, locations;
•  You gain experience in talking about your career goals and interests in a relaxed environment;
• You may find out about openings for positions that are coming up or are currently available;
•  You may be invited to apply for a position or submit a resume based on the request of person you are interviewing.

 Who To Interview?

You want to interview people who are in positions that you think you would like to be in – your dream career positions.  You may have two or three careers or occupations you want to know more about.  That is great.  Just remember that you want to interview at least two people from each career area – and three or four is ideal.  Never depend on the opinions and perspectives of one person in a career or occupation.  Why, because you get a more realistic view of your dream career by talking with more people who are in it.  And, you will find out more about how people prepared themselves for their occupations, why they chose to work in a particular industry, etc.  You want to see the range of your options in approaching and preparing for your career.

You also want to choose people who are working in industries and organizations that you think you would enjoy working in.  If you are not familiar with most organizational settings, try to interview people in at least three settings to see which ones appeal to you the most.  If you already know the type of organization you want to be in, then do all your interviews in those organizations.  Even within industries there are differences across them due to size, culture and climate, customer base, etc.

 Finding People to Interview

This is often what stops people from doing these interviews.  They just don’t know how to go about locating people.  Yes, it takes a little work.  But, it’s worth it – right!  Most people love to help others, so put on your optimistic hat and get ready to find your people to interview.  Let’s look at some great ways to generate people to interview.

1.   Make a list of everyone you know.  The six degrees of separation theory is really relevant here.  Some people in your network will know just the right people for you to be in touch with.  You don’t know everything about people in your network.  You have no idea about what their brain and memory and experience will tap into when you ask for assistance in this.  Be a believer and it will happen.  Here are some ideas for people who need to be on your list:  current and former friends, family, current and former colleagues, previous bosses, neighbors, any professional people in your life such as doctors or lawyers or dentists.

Once you have this list of people you know, tell them what you need.  Send out e-mails, make calls and reconnect, announce your request at family functions and dinners, take a few colleagues to lunch and brainstorm other connections.

2.  Contact your career or alumni office at your college.  Many campuses have alumni data base that they can tap into and give you the names and contact information for people in jobs you want to interview.  Other schools have web sites you can use to contact alumni.  Go to your schools web site first and see if they have a way for you to be in touch with other alumni.  Then, give your alumni office or career center a call and
see what they can do for you.  If this doesn’t work, contact your buddies from college and start asking them who they know.

3.  Contact professional and community organizations for contacts.  Your local Chamber of Commerce is fantastic.  They know all the businesses in your community and know who runs them, so getting specific information as a first step is easy.  And, you can call any Chamber of Commerce and get the same good service.  Try professional organizations for the career or trade your dream career falls within.  Contact women’s organizations or special interest group associations on the web or in your community. Also look up information on the web for organizations in your career field. 

4.   Go to professional or trade association meetings in your community or region.  These are meetings where people from a certain career focus come together.  An example of this is people who are trainers in organizations belong to ASTD, American Society for Training and Development.  There are local chapters across the country.  If one of them is within driving distance for you, go and meet the people and set up some interviews. 

5.  Look in your local papers for articles on people being promoted in your local organizations.  Every paper usually has a feature article on people in different careers each week, so this is a possible source for you.  And, there are often feature articles on local professional and trade people.  Keep your eyes open.  This can be something you make it a point to do each day as you read the paper.  Gather 3 names of week for 3 weeks.

6.   Magazines and Journals are another source of finding people who are in careers you want to know more about.  If you belong to a library, you can use their on-line service to look up recent articles on magazines and journals that relate to your career area.

Three Stages of Interviewing

The three stages to follow in making sure you have a successful interview are Good Preparation, The Interview, and Follow-up Steps.  Each one will be described and steps outlined below:

Stage 1: Good Preparation

Good preparation includes making the appointment, having knowledge about the organization the person you are interviewing is in, having done your homework on gathering information on your career area and dream occupation, and getting your questions ready for the interview.

1.  Making the Appointment – if you’re networking and data gathering has paid off, you have the name and phone number for the person you will interview.  If you don’t have a phone number, look up the organization on the internet yellow pages or super pages.  When you don’t have the name of a person, look up the organization you want to go to on the web.  Look at the page on their directory that tells you about the people who are leading the organization.  This will give you familiarity with the titles they use.  You will also generally find a phone number for the organization, or you can use the super pages.  When you call the organization you can tell the operator that you want to reach the manager of ____________department where your ideal occupation would be located – you fill in the blanks. Or you can ask to be put through to the Human Resource Department where you can ask for the name and number of the manager in ___________. If you can stop into the organization to set up your interview, that is even better. 

Once you get through to the right office, you will either speak to another administrative assistant or you will get a voice mail.  Have your “make an appointment” script ready.  Introduce yourself, tell them that you want to make a 20 or 30 minute appointment to interview the manager about their career.  Make it clear that you are not looking for a job – just information.  Tell the person your available times for this meeting – give a few options.  A good idea is to offer to schedule an appointment during their break time or lunch time with an offer to buy them a cup of coffee or quick lunch for their time and effort.

You can write a note to arrange an interview, but it is much faster to make the call.  You will have to do it as a follow-up to the letter anyway.  And, sometimes, the initial contact is more enticing and can get you better results.  Because information interviews have become so popular in recent years, some companies and individuals are not as receptive.  When this occurs, you might ask for a referral or if they have other ways of introducing people to careers in their organizations.  Most of the time people are very willing to help as much as they can.

2.   Ok the hard part is now over – you have the appointment!  Next, prepare for the appointment by going on the company web site and reading about their products and services and news releases, and mission and values, etc. You have already done some research on this career area and specific occupation in The Occupational Outlook Handbook, CareerOneStop, or other sources.  Review this information and identify some areas that you want more information about in this interview. 
By knowing about the field and the organization, you are putting your best foot foreword to the person you are interviewing.  You have done your homework and they will be appreciative and impressed with this.  And, you will be able to converse more easily with this knowledge.

3.   Now you need to gather all your questions together for the interview.  Remember, you only have about 30 minutes, so select the questions that are most important for you to have answered.  You may already have quite a bit of information from your previous research, so identify those areas that you want more in-depth information on.  Also, you definitely want to know what their advice is on preparing yourself for this occupation.  And, you want to know what they like the most and least about the job.
Here are a whole bunch of questions to choose from that were developed by The Career Center at Florida State University – www.career.fsu.edu These are great questions and will give you a great picture of what this job and industry is all about as well as get some great advice:

• (Background) Tell me how you got started in this field. What was your education? What educational background or related experience might be helpful in entering this field?
• (Work Environment) What are the daily duties of the job? What are the working conditions? What skills/abilities are utilized in this work?
• (Problems) What are the toughest problems you deal with? What problems does the organization as a whole have? What is being done to solve these problems?
• (Life Style) What obligation does your work put on you outside the work week? How much flexibility do you have in terms of dress, work hours, vacations?
• (Rewards) What do you find most rewarding about this work, besides the money?
• (Salary) What salary level would a new person start with? What are the fringe benefits? What are other forms of compensation? (bonuses, commissions, securities).
• (Potential) Where do you see yourself going in a few years? What are your long term goals?
• (Promotional) Is turnover high? How does one move from position to position? Do people normally move to another company/division/agency? What is your policy about promotions from within? What happened to the person(s) who last held this position? How many have held this job in the last 5 years? How are employees evaluated?
• (The Industry) What trends do you see for this industry in the next 3 to 5 years? What kind of future do you see for this organization? How much of your business is tied to (the economy, government spending, weather, supplies, etc.)?
• (Advice) How well-suited is my background for this field? When the time comes, how would I go about finding a job in this field? What experience, paid or volunteer, would you recommend? What suggestions do you have to help make my resume more effective?
• (Demand) What types of employers hire people in this line of work? Where are they located? What other career areas do you feel are related to your work?
• (Hiring Decision) What are the most important factors used to hire people in this work (education, past experience, personality, special skills). Who makes the hiring decisions for your department? Who supervises the boss? When I am ready to apply for a job, who should I contact?
• (Job Market) How do people find out about your jobs? Are they advertised in the newspaper (which ones?) by word-of-mouth (who spreads the word?) by the personnel office?
• (Referral to Other Information Opportunities) Can you name a relevant trade journal or magazine you would recommend I review? What professional organizations might have information about this career area?
• (Referral to Others) Based on our conversation today, what other types of people do you believe I should talk to? Can you name a few of these people? May I have permission to use your name when I contact them?
• Do you have any other advice for me?

Stage 2: The Interview

This requires doing the basics of presenting yourself well.  Be on time by getting your directions off the web site or map quest, calling the organization to ask where you can park and the exact location of office you are visiting, and leaving a little extra time for getting lost!  Dress appropriately.  Depending on the occupation you are interviewing in, the dress code will vary.  No matter what, it’s important that you dress professionally – neat, clean, on the conservative vs. flashy side, moderate amount of make-up or hair gel, shoes you can walk in and are for work vs. clubbing.  You can always call the Human Resource Department and ask what the dress code is.  If you are interviewing someone in the trades, you don’t have to wear a suite, but it’s ok to be more on the dress up side than the person might be whom you are interviewing.  You are the one making an impression remember. 

Relax and shake the person’s hand, introduce yourself again, tell them how much you appreciate their time.  Let them know the purpose of the meetings and that you have a list of questions you want to ask them.  And, you want them to feel free to add anything they think would help you understand the occupation and career field.  Tell them you are going to take some notes to help you capture the information that will be shared, unless they would prefer you do not do this.  If you don’t want to take notes or the person prefers you don’t, then you can sit down right after the interview and write down what you remember (that will be plenty). 

Stick to the time allotted for the interview, unless the person insists on taking more time which often happens.  At the end of your time with them, ask them if they can recommend anyone else for you to speak with.  These may be colleagues they have in different industries or organizations or even someone else in this organization that they think would be a good person for you to interview.  Thank them again for their time.

Stage 3: Follow-up Steps

First write a personal note of thanks for the interview.  Indicate the highlights of what you are taking away for yourself from this interview – how it has helped you.  You may include your resume for the person to keep on file if that feels appropriate at this time.  He/she may have asked you for one during the interview.

Next reflect on the information that you have received and how it is informing your decision making process about schools, majors, occupations, organizations you want to work in, etc.  If you are deciding that another aspect of this career is beginning to seem more interesting, be sure you do interviews in that area going foreword.

Make more appointments for interviews using the list of people you gained from this interviewee.  The closer you do this to the time you saw the person, the more likely it is that you will do it!  Be proactive – you are on a roll.

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