20+ Potential Questions for Informational Interviewing
Saturday, August 14th, 2010 2:41 pm
- What made you choose this particular field?
- How did you arrive at your current position?
- What is the most difficult challenge you faced along the way?
- What do you like most about your job?
- What do you dislike about your job?
- How do you balance your professional life and personal or family life?
- What is your typical day like?
- What are the duties/functions/responsibilities of your job?
- What kinds of problems do you deal with?
- What kinds of decisions do you make?
- How important is it that I go to grad school for this particular career?
- How important are grades/GPA for obtaining a job in this field?
- Who are your mentors or role models?
- What qualities have helped you succeed in this field?
- What was your favorite assignment or project you worked on this year?
- If you weren’t doing this career, what would you be doing?
- What are the various jobs in this field or organization?
- Why did you decide to work for this company?
- What do you like most about this company?
- How does your company differ from its competitors?
- What types of changes or advancements are occurring in your occupation?
- How would you describe the working atmosphere and the people with whom you work?
- What advice would you give for someone just starting out in this field?
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[...] Hi Selena! First, try to schedule meetings only with folks that you are actually interested in learning more about! Second, you’re right: you have to come to the table with something specific, and the farther along you are in your career, the more specific that purpose needs to be. You don’t want to be wasting their time– whether it’s a 10 minute chat over coffee or an hour long lunch. If you’re the one who requested the meeting, understand that the other person doesn’t view it as a “Let’s get to know each other and chat” meeting. They perceive you’re coming to them for specific advice or guidance or help. So you need to come up with a mini-mission for the meeting– and if you don’t feel inspired, make one up! Spend some time researching the interviewee’s background on the company website/Google– and come up with the key theme you want to learn more about. For example: How did this person arrive in their position? How did getting that MBA/JD/Masters help them advance? How did they spearhead a particular initiative that you think is really cool? Here’s the setup: “I’ve really admired how you’ve done X, and I really wanted to learn more about your experiences” or “I’m wondering if you have any advice on how I can do X, too.” (For more general suggestions on other questions to ask during the meeting, check out this post). [...]