Networking and informational interviewing

Our current labour market is volatile; career paths less clear; educational choices more broad; with a vast quantity of advice being available... which tends to be of variable quality or applicability. That is where I find informational interviewing comes into its own: we can go and talk to a 'real' person, who has gained experience, training, and education, and who now do a real job. A couple of recent posts has looked at this topic (here).

Informational interviewing is a technique where the interviewer contacts "a previously unknown person (usually a career model), conducting background research (on the person, occupation, and organization), meeting the person for between 30-45 minutes, and acting in a professional manner" (Kanar, 2020, p. 2, citing Decarie, 2010). While Kanar (2020) suggests that the interviewee is unknown to the interviewer, initial interviewees in New Zealand tend to be family friends, then the circle moves outwards as the interviewer seeks different or more specific information. Those already in the field of interest tend to connect us with others in the field: we literally use our networks. 

Not only does undertaking interviews with family connections and then onto others in the field helps us to build networks, it also helps those of us about to enter the workforce realise just how critical networking is in helping us to find our next opportunities. Those of us who tend to end up in interesting roles have often developed our own self-efficacy in networking because we collect people along the way via our professional experience across organisations. 

Deliberately building networks is an excellent professional development skill to hone. Broad networks can be immensely useful when changing roles, when changing fields, or when changing country. We never know when chatting to someone in an airline queue, alongside the sportsfield, at a cafe, at a gallery opening, or outside the meeting room at a job interview might lead us to our next rewarding role.

Not only can informational interviews help to better match us with jobs, and build our career preparedness skills, undertaking the interview also boosts our networking self-efficacy (Kanar, 2023). The more we practice, the better we get - now there is a surprise!

Sam

References:

Kanar, A. M. (2023). Effectiveness of informational interviewing for facilitating networking self‐efficacy in university students. The Career Development Quarterly, 71(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12318

Kanar, A. (2020). Increasing student engagement in human resource management courses through informational interviewing. Journal of Human Resources Education, 14(3/4), 1-13. file:///D:/+Customer%20Files/Lecturing/CD%20Articles/Kanar%20-%20Increasing%20student%20engagement,%202020.pdf