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Your Questions Answered

Career Coach is a twice-monthly column on BBC Capital in which we consider the career turning points and questions many professionals face. We welcome questions from readers at careercoach@bbc.com.

Informational interviews appear to have gone the way of the paper CV: they’re still around but are rarely requested — or offered — anymore. But, it turns out, they can still be an excellent way to network and ultimately help land you a job.

At business school HEC Montreal in Canada, some 1,200 to 1,500 students who take the Strategic Job Search Workshop each year are given a useful five-page hand-out titled A Guide to Informational Interviewing that outlines how to get an interview and what to say once you’re there

“We tend to encourage our students to use informational interviews not only as a job search strategy but also as a way to better understand business careers,” said Pierre Francq, HEC Montreal’s director of career management services, in an email. “When approached properly, most people are still responding positively.”

That’s especially true if you reach out to alumni of your university. “People are far more inclined to do this as it makes them feel like they are giving back,” said Glenn Laumeister, CEO and founder of New York-based CoachMarket, in an email. Even so, it is often more experienced job-seekers who need the most help since higher level positions tend to be harder to come by.

“As a career coach I try to encourage all my clients to carry out as many of these as possible to do their due diligence … into the company or industry they would like to approach,” said Sally Walker, a UK-based career coach with SW Career Coaching, in an email. In the UK, the interviews are more aptly called information gathering meetings, according to Walker.

Informal in nature, they are often held in cafes with contacts you only know indirectly: for example, a second-level connection on business social networking site LinkedIn. “[These] can provide so much rich information about the culture, values and environment of an organisation,” said Walker. “This is intelligence that a prospective candidate would not find on the organisation website or mission statement but gives them a truer feel of what it would be like to work there.”

Walker encourages people to create a list of four or five questions to ask at these meetings. The questions should “show their initiative and that they are being proactive in setting up such a meeting.” For example: What challenges is the organisation facing during the coming year? What is a typical day like? What does the individual like/dislike about the company? Where does he/she see him or herself going?

“They are questions at an organisational as well as individual level,” she said.

Unless an organisation includes a contact name and number or email on the job advertisement or application form, informational interviews as a standard are rare, Walker said. If they are offered, then they are part of the recruitment process, and “you will gain points if you call for one and lose points if you don’t.”

If they aren’t part of the recruitment process, Walker encourages people to seek out someone in the organisation with whom to talk. But you need to be proactive. A first-level or second-level connection will meet with you if you have a strong enough reputation, she said.

They might also meet with you if you have another type of connection, such as the same alma mater or mutual friends or interests.

But because these once-formal steps in the job process are becoming more rare, it’s up to you to do the legwork in many cases.

“In recent years, with the downsizing of many large companies and lack of middle management — not to mention pressures on everyone’s time — it’s becoming less and less common,” he said.

If you’re not having much luck getting an interview from the company directly, Laumeister suggests talking to a career coach or recruiter, especially if you are in a more senior position. Coaches or recruiters will have a deeper “level of understanding and knowledge about the company, industry, and even in some cases specific role for which you may be applying,” Laumeister said.

Yes, it will cost you some money sometimes to get help from a coach — most charge by the hour, anywhere between $150 and $500, according to Laumeister — but it can be worthwhile in the right circumstances. One of his recent clients told him that he’d rather pay to get targeted, specific and high-level advice on his career than spend six weeks trying to get a lunch set up. 

If you secure an informational interview, don’t expect your interviewer to have a lot of extra time, said Jayne Mattson, senior vice president at Keystone Associates, a Boston-based career management consulting firm, in an email. Keep it short, be respectful of the person’s time and be clear about how the person can help you — and do not ask for a job.

“Informational interviews are to ask questions to gather information, ask for advice and contacts that lead you closer to the people who would be interested in your background and ideally the hidden job market,” Mattson said. Even though it’s not a job interview, be prepared. “Every job seeker needs a well thought-out, 30-second commercial that indicates who you are, what you did, what you want to do next, and how can people help you,” said Mattson.

Once you have that, you start with people you know, such as a former boss, colleague or friend. “In each meeting, you are learning where your skills and experience would be the best fit and in what type of company,” she said.

The more in-person meetings you can have, the better.

“An in-person meeting provides deeper understanding and perspective about a particular job role,” said Arpita Singh, who heads up the Mentorship Programs’ division at Vahura, India’s leading legal and governance search firm, in an email. “Sometimes through face-to-face meetings, you discover new career paths.”

An informational interview can also give recent graduates practice for future interviews. “It enables you to broaden your professional network, manages your expectations and prepares you for a real life interview,” said Singh. “Feedbacks from such sessions help you become a better professional.”

Career Coach is a twice-monthly column on BBC Capital in which we consider the career turning points and questions many professionals face. We welcome questions from readers at careercoach@bbc.com.



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