whether you're looking to learn about an industry a company's culture or your dream
job informational interviews will give you an insider view from people actually working in
the field which is something that you probably won't find elsewhere and who knows it might even
lead to a job offer further down the line what's up everyone it's kenji here and today i thought
i'd go over informational interviews also known as coffee chats what's nice about them is that it's
an interview without the stress element in that you're the one in control you're the one asking
the questions instead of a regular interview where they're asking you questions and you don't really
know what to expect so i'll break the video down into four main parts firstly the pre-interview
prep secondly the interview structure thirdly the types of questions that you should ask with
specific examples and then fourthly how to go about asking for a request whether that be a
job recommendation or just getting in touch with other relevant people all right let's get into it
starting off with the interview prep and there's three main things that you can do
firstly has to do with looking at their linkedin profile this is going to help you understand their
position and how they got there and from their point of view it looks like you did your research
if you know something about them already next up is to google search their position that's going
to give you a better understanding of what they do what kind of work hours they have as well as
their salaries if that's public information and lastly you should research the company's website
this will give you a better understanding of how the company operates and how it's structured
also you can see what positions are currently open and whether you could be a good fit for some if
that is the case you may want to bring it up after during the interview which we'll talk about later
here's how you want to break down the informational interview the first step
is the pre-interview which we already talked about earlier that should take around 15 minutes once on
the call the first part is your background where you're going to explain a bit about who you are
secondly what's on your mind and then lastly what they can help you with this can be as simple as
i'm a third-year student at cornell university studying business and i'm considering a career
in management consulting and i was wondering if you could help me clarify some doubts i have
about the industry that brief introduction should only take a few minutes after all you're there to
learn from them and if all you do is talk about yourself you're obviously not gonna learn much
next up are the questions and this really should be the bulk of your chat you can generally split
the questions into career related and job related the career related ones are more generic so things
like what are the common career paths in your field on the other hand the job related ones
are usually more specific so things like what kind of skills do you use on your day-to-day
overall i'd say this is a good way to split your questions and if you're unsure about what to ask
for specifically don't worry we'll get to that in the next section thirdly you have the request
and this is where you ask for what you want that's usually getting connected with somebody else that
has more relevant information or alternatively just straight up asking for a job recommendation
and this is definitely the most delicate part of the interview that calls should last around 15
to 30 minutes tending more towards the 30 if things are going well and towards the end of
the call if you're short on time you can always say i realize that we're running out of time i'd
love to continue talking but if you have other commitments i completely understand this way you
come off politely regardless of whether they say yes where they say no lastly once the interview
is done you want to send them a thank you email where you thank them for their time and at the
same time you might want to remind them of your request if they haven't gotten back to you in time
so moving on to the actual questions but before we get into that here's some mistakes to avoid
the first one has to do with asking googlable questions for example if you're looking for a
job at google don't ask about what university year you need to be in to apply for their internship
if you can just find that in their faq section of the career website
secondly ask open-ended questions not just yes no questions after all you want this to be a
conversation and be enjoyable for both parties the last thing you want is to be a 50 question
rapid fire where they feel like they're being bombarded with that here's some of the questions
you might want to ask and remember the goal here is to get as much information as possible
without being intrusive while at the same time causing a good impression first off some career
related ones and one that i really like to start with was how did you begin your career
it's obviously quite open-ended and it will give you an insider knowledge of how they went about
getting to where they are maybe they mention a specific internship that was really useful for
them maybe it was the type of degree that they did or a specific course that they took another one
that i like to ask is as i'm trying to understand whether this position is right for me are there
any things you wish you had known when you were in my shoes this is a soft indirect way of asking
are there any things that you don't like about your current jobs or did you make any mistakes
that you wish you had known about lastly there is what are some common career paths in this field
this will give you a good idea of what people working in this field currently aspire to
and whether you see yourself doing that say in five to ten years time next up we have some job
related questions the first one that i like to ask is what are some of your most common tasks this
way they'll tell you the specific tasks that they tend to work on and you can assess whether they're
right for you also i think it's better than just asking what's your day-to-day like which is a bit
more generic and they might just answer with hey i wake up at this time i go to work i typically do
excel have lunch and then i present in the evening as that's obviously not very useful information
next up we have what skills are essential to success in your job i found this question
especially useful when i was in university as i had a good bit of free time which meant
that i could take on an additional course if i wanted to learn a new skill or something like
that similarly if you want to ask the question to make it a bit more relatable to you you can
ask something like what steps would you suggest i take to prepare to enter for this type of a role
they could recommend anything from a particular internship a type of course that you should take
or even an extracurricular activity lastly if you want to learn more about the personal stuff like
the salaries or the work hours i would try to approach those a bit more indirectly so instead
of asking how many hours do you work a week you can say something like hey do you have any any
time for your hobbies after work similarly if you want to ask about salary instead of
just asking how much you make which is generally perceived as quite rude you can instead ask them
hey i saw on the internet that the pay range for this position is around 80 000 is that true that
way they can try to escape from the question by just saying more or less or something like that
instead of just putting them on the spot overall if you're unsure whether you'll remember these
questions you can always just have a notebook with you that's perfectly fine in my case for
example i used to get quite nervous with these things so i decided to just bring a notebook
make sure i have all the questions there also feel free to write notes on what they're saying
it shows that you care about what they have to say and at the same time it's probably going to make
them feel important which is good do let them know that you'll be taking notes especially if
it's a phone call or a video call where it's just going to look strange if you have your head down
hey are you sleeping after questions we have the requests and the next steps
and the request is usually just a question along the lines of is there anybody else you think it
would be beneficial for me to speak with the idea here is that the more people that you speak to the
higher the odds that somebody is going to help you reach where you want to be whether that be
getting your dream job or just understanding a particular industry better when you think
about it if you go into a job interview and you've already spoken with all of the interviewers before
that's obviously beneficial compared to a candidate that doesn't know any of them
that's a more conventional thing to ask but if you feel like the child went very well and you
had an enjoyable conversation you can always go a bit further and straight up as something like
do you know of any opportunities that could be interesting to me your company
alternatively if you already know the position that you'll be applying to you can say i'm going
to be applying to the exposition is there anything i can do to maximize my chances of getting the job
by asking these questions it is possible to get recommended for a job so basically if there's 100
resumes yours might be on top and don't be too afraid to ask these questions at the end of the
day from your point of view you don't have that much to lose maybe they just say no and that's
that but on the flip side on the positive if it does work out then you end up getting the job
that's obviously a very high upside after a call you should send them a follow-up note basically
thanking them for your time and you might want to mention a thing or two that you found interesting
just to make it a bit more personal also it's a good excuse to ask them any follow-up questions
or even remind them in case they've forgotten to do what they promised during the call
like say recommending you for a job so that's a general guide to informational interviews
let me know down in the comments if you have any other future video ideas that's all for
this one hit the like hit that subscribe if you liked it i'll catch you in the next one