Informational interviewing

An informational interview is a pretty standard investigative tool in the career development quiver where we create an opportunity "to pick someone's brain about a profession, business, or industry" (Plakhotnik, 2017, p. 1, citing Decarie, 2010, p. 306). We use our networks to find people to chat to; if anyone remembers the old US shampoo ad "I told two friends about it, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on" (ewjxn, 2020, 0:07), you know how our networks can lead us to 'experts' in their fields with very few degrees of separation (Milgram, 1967).

Side note: The ideas of degrees of separation arose from a study exploring how many steps were needed for a parcel being passed by hand to reach a target person in a different city, which averaged at 5.5 intermediary steps from the first person "in rural Nebraska to a target person in suburban Boston" (Gao, 2005, p. 39; Milgram, 1967). Interestingly, digital media has closed the gap, with "the average degrees of separation based on [Facebook]'s own data [now being] 3.5" (Chung, 2019, p. 395).

When we want a change of direction, or are new to a field, informational interviews can help us to see if we have 'fit' with a profession: whether our personality, values, skills, abilities, interests, personal circumstances, status, and physical and mental health will assist us in finding work in the area of interest (Inkson et al., 2015). It can also help us understand what skills and abilities we may need to build to gain entry or to change direction... and what mental or physical training we may need. 

How do we set up an informational interview? There are a few steps we need to take:

Spiel. Create a quick two or three sentence story, to quickly convey why we are asking for help. For example: "I am very interested in working in [xxx] field, and I am looking for people to talk to about it. Could I make a time to have a quick chat with you about how you got into this area, and what a typical work day is for you? Or can you recommend someone else I could talk to?" If you got this person's name from someone else, mention that early: "I am very interested in working in [xxx] field, and Jane Doe suggested that I call you. Could I make a time to have a quick chat with you..." etc.

Networks. To find people, we ask our networks. If we are younger, we leverage our parents' networks, as well as joining LinkedIn, and contacting "family, and friends" (Al-Ani et al., 2020, p. 34). If we are younger, we can "'play the student card' and to leverage the kindness of strangers who are asked to help" (p. 34). If we can contact the person directly - a quick call, or a quick face to face request is best - we just ask them for 30 minutes of their time to meet, using our spiel. Try meeting in a neutral place, such as a cafe. If possible, buy them a coffee or tea as a low risk thank you.

Plan. We sit down and plan some questions that we want to ask: but not too many. In general each question will take roughly two minutes to answer. So if we are taking half an hour of someone's time, we should ideally ask fewer than fifteen questions. Research by Al-Ani et al. (2020, p. 35) assists us with 20 questions for us to choose from - see the diagram accompanying this post, and the infographic below. 

Action. Then we arrive early. We are prepared, so we are honouring the gift our person is giving us of their time. We do our interview. We take notes. We keep a careful eye on the time, and ask if they need to go, even if we have not asked all our questions (most people will be generous). And we close by asking if there is anyone else this person could connect us with so we can continue learning about the field.

While no learning is ever wasted, informational interviewing can prevent us investing our resources in preparing for a field which is unlikely to sustain us. For example, my post-secondary school goal was to be a journalist. At the end of my second to last year I did an internship the local newspaper, and found that I didn't fit with the journalists: they were all men; and either ancient, cynical and raddled, or young thrusters. I felt I did not fit. By experiencing the workplace, I could see that my romantic ideals probably would not have bridged me from my training into work. By meeting and talking to a range of people in the field, we can absorb that feeling of fit... or not.

While I am not saying that we all need role models in our chosen fields to succeed, if we go into a field and do not see people like ourselves, we may need tenacity to get ahead. There is no right and wrong: some people love that type of challenge; others find it daunting. I have a friend who battled her way through a variety of New Zealand Fire Service roles, continually fighting a male-dominated culture. I would have been exhausted by it, but she was driven by a very strong set of values and beliefs in equal-opportunity which sustained her. By talking to someone in the role about the mental and physical fortitude we need to be successful.

And informational interviewing is a great tool to help us evaluate fit :-)

Sam

References:

Al-Ani, A., Bourhill, T., & Rancourt, D. E. (2020). Embedding Informational Interviews into Postsecondary Curriculum. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 19(2), 33-44. https://cjcd.ceric.ca/index.php/cjcd/article/download/16/7

Chung, K. S. K. (2019). Chapter 18: Social Network Analysis Toolset. In A. Gorod, L. Hallo, V. Ireland, I. Gunawan (Eds.), Evolving Toolbox for Complex Project Management (pp. 395-416). Auerbach Publications.

ewjxn. (2020, March 4). 1984 Fabergé Organics shampoo "Heather Locklear told two friends" TV Commercial [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Hyxmj1Yf6Dk

Gao, H. (2005). The invisible handshake: interpreting the job-seeking communication of foreign-born Chinese in the United States. [Doctoral thesis, University of South Florida]. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/2888

Inkson, K., Dries, N. & Arnold, J. (2015). Chapter 6: Careers as Fit. In Understanding Careers (pp. 136-162). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Milgram, S. (1967). The small world problem. Psychology Today, 1(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.1037/e400002009-005

Plakhotnik, M. S. (2017). Using the informational interview to get an insight into the profession of a manager. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2017.02.002