7 Reasons to Regularly Conduct Informational Interviews

When I was in engineering college I missed a huge opportunity. Being a bit quiet, bookish, and shy, I rarely reached out to working professionals for career guidance or advice of any kind. 

Honestly, the idea never even occurred to me. Even if it had, I wouldn’t have known how to do it anyway. 

I'm sure I would have thought to myself, "Who would want to spend their valuable time with a farm kid studying engineering?"

Professionals are Eager To Help You

Well, as I’ve learned over the last 40 years, there are literally thousands of people who would have gladly met with me and helped me. 

The same is true for you today. There are thousands of working professionals who would answer, “Yes”, if you asked them to let you conduct an informational interview with them.

However, even knowing this, I bet you would want some compelling reasons to push you past the hesitation most STEM students have towards approaching strangers for help.

That’s the reason I wrote this article, to help convince you of the significant value that informational interviews can bring you.

First Things First: What’s an Informational Interview?

Typically, an info interview involves reaching out to someone you don’t currently know, in order to learn things that they know and you don’t. 

Yep, it’s that simple. 

It’s usually done face to face, but can be easily done using a host of different audio, text and/or live video streaming apps.

It’s very similar to a job interview, except for one gigantic difference. You’re not seeking a job, you’re only looking for information. 

7 Reasons to Regularly Conduct Informational Interviews

Although it may seem scary if you’ve never done it, please trust me that the payoffs for breaking through the initial fear and reaching out to others can be huge.

What follows are seven of my favorite reasons why you should make informational interviews a key element of your knowledge, network and career-building strategies:

Reason #1 - Learn from others who know more than you

Informational interviews are most often thought of as a way to do career exploration. It’s true, they are outstanding for exploring different careers, but they are also great for researching and learning almost anything. 

For example, back in 2012, I wanted to learn how to make videos for my website.

Google helped me find a local video expert, who I then invited for coffee at a nearby Panera. Luckily, he agreed without hesitation. Can you believe our conversation lasted for nearly three hours?

Since then, Scott Skibell and I have formed a lasting friendship that’s allowed us to help each other in a variety of ways. In the years following our meeting, I've also shot, edited and uploaded over 175 videos. Here's one I bet you would enjoy learning from.

Reason #2 - Add to your network of supportive relationships

With every interview you conduct, you create an opportunity to begin building a new relationship. One by one, those relationships add up and become what’s commonly referred to as your “network”. 

When grown and nurtured intentionally, your network can become a group of people who will not only willingly help and support you, but who you can also offer your help to. It’s the perfect win-win.

Reason #3 - Strengthen your conversational and interviewing skills

Since interviews are simply a unique kind of conversation, it follows that lots of interviews will translate into lots of practice designing and conducting conversations. 

Especially for a young person, getting an early start on building strong conversational skills will prove invaluable during job interviews, and as a full-time professional in the workplace.

Reason #4 - Develop research skills

Admittedly, with search engines like Google and social media sites like LinkedIn, finding the right people to interview has gotten much easier and faster than when I was in college. This past article reveals a good example.

However, even with today's Internet tools, the process still requires that you think through who could best help you, where you might find them, and what contact method would be best for sending your invitation.

Reason #5 - Build confidence and persistence by regularly reaching out to others for help

In my experience, if someone can fit your interview request into their schedule, most will agree to meet with you. But no doubt, you will get a few rejections too. 

Going through the variety of steps necessary to successfully conduct an info interview is what will build your confidence.

Overcoming the random rejections is what will help you learn the power of persistence.

Confidence and persistence are both valuable traits to develop. 

Reason #6 - Explore jobs, companies, and careers before making a personal change

The published stats often vary, but the bottom line is that today’s average employee will change jobs anywhere from 10 to 15 times over his/her lifetime. If this is true (I believe it is), wouldn’t it make sense to thoroughly research the jobs, companies and careers we’re thinking about moving to? 

Herein lies one of the real beauties of informational interviews. Talking with others can help you get the inside scoop on jobs, companies and careers, before jumping in with both feet.

This is exactly how I avoided a potentially disastrous career move almost three years go. Using LinkedIn's search feature, I located and then spoke by phone with current and former employees of the company I thought I wanted to work for. Those "interviews" saved me from making a very big mistake!

Reason #7 - Informational Interviews are a ton of fun

After conquering any initial fears you might have, the entire process of conducting informational interviews becomes a real kick. There's something very satisfying about successfully connecting with someone new who is willing to help you by sharing things they know and care about.

Personally, the most fun I get out of informational interviewing is making new friends and starting new relationships. 

Are You Ready To Reap The Benefits?

These seven reasons only scratch the surface of what informational interviews can do for you.

Informational interviewing is like so many of the life skills we use. Once we gain confidence and understanding around a new skill, we often begin to see lots of other valuable uses for it. 

I strongly urge you to give informational interviewing a try soon.

Here's Help

To help you learn exactly how to conduct an informational interview, I encourage you to download my free STRAIGHT TALK GUIDE titled, CONDUCTING INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS.

To watch an intro video, to learn more about the easy step-by-step process, and to download the free PDF version, click HERE.

Enjoy! 

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Thanks for reading. I'm Don Gallagher, founder of the engineering/STEM career and soft skills development site: EngineeringCareerLauncher.com.

Educated as a mechanical engineer, I spent 25 years in engineering, recruiting, training, sales and marketing roles with John Deere. Today I have a passion for helping engineering (and other STEM) students start and build remarkable careers. 

If you found this article helpful, you might also like my FREE 57-page STRAIGHT TALK GUIDE titled, DOMINATING YOUR INTERNSHIP: 7.5 Secrets to Creating an Awesome and Invaluable Experience as an Engineering or STEM Intern.

There are other free GUIDES and resources in the ECL Learning Store.