Written by Cole Maziarski ’18

Job hunting is one of the most difficult tasks someone will do in their lifetime. All the way from not knowing what they want to do to being interviewed for a potential position. However, this can all be made easier by conducting an informational interview. Some of you may be thinking what is an informational interview? An informational interview is an informal conversation that somebody conducts with an employee that has a career that interests you and would be willing to give you advice and any information that could help steer you in the right direction.

Now that you are interested and want to learn more, I’m going to teach about some simple steps that you can take to getting this done.

The first thing you must do is ASK. Everybody knows that emailing, calling, or talking to someone that is older can be nerve racking but when it all comes down to it, the best thing to do is ask. Ask an employee for a few moments of their time just to talk to them and get to know them better. Find out how they got started in this career field and what tips they could give you to give you that edge.

Now, obviously you don’t want to go into an informational interview knowing nothing and blanking on questions to ask. This brings us to our second step, DO YOUR RESEARCH. After you’ve scheduled this informational interview make sure you do research about your interested career field. Find out what companies are related to this field or what individual career paths could be taken. This step should be easy because you are finding out more information about what interests you and how you could potentially get a foot in this field.

Personally, I believe this next step is the second most important which is HAVE QUESTIONS PREPARED TO ASK. From personal experience, I felt very unprepared when I was being interviewed and I didn’t have any questions to ask the people interviewing me. This is simple to avoid if you can come prepared with questions that could either relate to a specific job or just how to go about getting into the career field. One of the best ways to get some questions to ask is just look online or ask other people who have been interviewed before. These questions should be designed to further your knowledge of the career field you are interested in.

The last step is CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW. You are finally at the stage where you can meet up with the person you have chosen to speak to. When you are in this meeting make sure to keep the conversation relaxed. You are doing this to find out information about a career field or a job. This is not meant for you to ask for a job or an internship. Make sure you are letting the interviewee know this and that you just want to expand your knowledge on this topic.

If you follow these steps and do more research so you are fully prepared then you will be able to conduct a successful informational interview.