So you have an informational interview, now what? Managing your meeting.

Once you’ve secured an informational interview, you’ll want to think about how to structure it so that you can establish a genuine connection, build empathy and advocacy, as well as demonstrate your enthusiasm, knowledge and professionalism.

Informational interviews are not meetings where you want to “wing it.”  These people have given you their time, something nobody has a lot of, and your job is to be respectful and show up prepared and ready to make it easy for them to help.  The key steps are: preparation and research, showing up with smart questions, and managing the meeting with a clear objective set at the beginning, questions that you ask and probe deeply on, and close out.  

Putting in the work to prep beforehand will allow you to feel confident and ready to structure your questions in a way that helps the interviewee see your competence, drive, and industry knowledge.  If these goals are well in hand, you may find they lead to job opportunities that were not published or openly advertised.  

Schedule a meeting with your coach in Handshake and check out the articles below to learn more best-practices for structuring your informational interviews!

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By W. P. Carey Career Services Center
W. P. Carey Career Services Center