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7 Secrets To A Successful Informational Interview

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An informational interview is a meeting where a job seeker asks for advice rather than employment. Rather than get a job offer, a job seeker uses informational interviews to:

  • Learn more about a company or job function
  • Inquire about job leads
  • Network

    For job seekers, informational interviews can secure meetings with managers, shape positive first impressions, and develop relationships that may pay off in the future. Managers are open to informational interviews because:

    • They do not require a big time investment. Informational interviews can be done during lunch or during an afternoon coffee break.
    • They can give managers an opportunity to identify new talent, either for now or in the future, without a formal recruiting process.
    • Informational interviews allow managers to give advice. Who doesn''t like to have their ego stroked?

    Here are my tips on how you can succeed in your informational interviews:

    1. Ask For An Informational Interview


    After you''ve identified who you want to meet, ask friends, family, ex-co-workers, and fellow alums if they have contacts at a certain company or a particular line of work. Utilize social networking tools, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to find contacts. In the introduction email, keep it short and simple. Provide some background information on yourself and explain why you want to meet.

    2. Clearly Define What You Want To Get Out Of The Meeting


    Woman goes in for an informational interview

    If you don''t know what you want, the person on the other side of the table will have a hard time helping you. I''d recommend going for easy wins such as learning more about a company or a job function. So prepare questions such as: 'œWhat do you like about working for company X?' or 'œWhen you think about successful folks in position Y, what made them successful?'

    3. Getting A Job Should Not Be Your Immediate Goal


    Woman asks a question during an informational interview

    Job seekers often ask for a job at the beginning. Resist that temptation. If the manager does have a job, asking for it at the beginning is premature, especially if you haven''t proven yourself. If he or she does not have a job, you and the manager have to overcome the early letdown. Instead, focus on asking good questions and creating a good impression. Then, at the end, do ask if the manager is hiring, but don''t push it.

    4. Go With The Flow


    Man asks a question during an informational interview

    Some managers use the informational interview as an informal job interview. If the manager wants to deviate from your prepared list of questions and ask you more formal interview questions, let him or her do so. Who knows? You might get a job offer at the end of the interview.

    5. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare


    Woman smiles during an informational interview

    An informational interview can range from an informal career chat to a structured interview. Prepare for any scenario. Have those general career questions ready, and at the same time, don''t be surprised if the interviewer asks tough questions like, 'œWhat''s your biggest weakness?' Remember the saying, 'œLuck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.'

    6. Dress For Success


    Man goes in for an informational interview

    It''s always worth reminding: dress professionally.

    7. Don''t Forget To Follow Up And Send The Thank-You Note


    Woman shakes hands with a colleague after an informational interview

    Don''t forget to send a thank-you email or note after the informational interview. In addition, send updates every couple of weeks. The manager invested time into your career; he or she will be interested in your progress. And who knows, that manager may not have had openings a while ago, but he or she may be hiring now.

    As a job seeker, an informational interview can be the secret to job search success. If you want to have a successful informational interview, just remember these seven tips. Good luck!

    Need more help with your job search?

    We'd love it if you joined our FREE community. It''s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you prepare for your next job interview.

    It's time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

    This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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    How To Overcome Your Job Search Fears Just In Time For Halloween
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    How To Overcome Your Job Search Fears Just In Time For Halloween

    The thought of conducting a job search right now is probably very intimidating for most professionals—and a little frightening. While there are many things that could be scaring you about your job search, you can’t let those fears impact your career, especially when you can easily overcome them with the right tools, tips, and strategies.

    If the phrase “looking for a job” strikes fear into your heart, don’t worry. Here’s how to overcome your job search fears this fall, just in time for Halloween!

    Fear #1: Employers Won’t Call You Back

    You’re putting so much time and effort into your job search, but what if employers never call you back? This is a common fear for many professionals, and for good reason.

    A lot of job seekers do spend hours a day applying for jobs only to never hear back from employers. There are a few reasons why this might be happening: your resume didn’t make it past the ATS, your cover letter didn’t stand out to hiring managers, and/or you didn’t adequately market your skills and experience to employers or demonstrate your value as a business-of-one.

    How To Overcome This Fear:

    Fear #2: You’ll Bomb The Job Interview

    Woman is stressed as she waits for her job interview

    This is a fear that probably keeps you up at night. You’ve finally found a job you like and landed an interview with the company. But what if you bomb the job interview? What if you ruin your chances of getting a job offer?

    Confidence is key in a job interview, and you can’t be confident without proper interview preparation.

    How To Overcome This Fear:

    Fear #3: You’ll Accept The Wrong Job Offer

    Job seeker on laptop dealing with job search fears

    If you’ve been looking for a job for a while, you might feel desperate. This puts you in a vulnerable spot, but you should avoid settling for a job if you can.

    On the flip side, you might have multiple job offers and need to decide which one is right for you. Do you feel empowered to make the right decision?

    How To Overcome This Fear:

    By following the tips above, you’ll successfully overcome any job search fears you may have, and you’ll realize the job search isn’t as scary as it seems!

    Need more help with your job search?

    Become a member to learn how to land a job and UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!

    This article was originally published at an earlier date.

    How To Conduct An Effective Informational Interview
    Published

    How To Conduct An Effective Informational Interview

    One thing that will gain you interviews with your target companies is by talking with more people who are “in the know.” Do this by conducting more interviews of your own.

    The informational interview is an effective way to build your network and gather information to move your career forward. Informational interviews can actually be quite fun. Meeting for coffee, or briefly in someone’s office, takes the pressure off both parties. The job seeker is simply asking for information, guidance, and advice. The person being interviewed is just providing that information and expertise. No one is saying, “Please give me a job!” And no one is making an offer. It’s just a chat.

    That’s right—this is not about asking for a job!

    Not right away, at least.

    As a job seeker, you should hope to get some questions answered relevant to the industry you are in, the company where your interviewee works, and the company’s competitors. You should ask about good ways to network in the field. Getting names of other professionals to contact for further informational interviews is a great result.

    Here’s how to do it:

    1. Make A List Of People You’d Like To Meet

    Make a detailed list of people you’d like to talk to about the next move in your career. People who have mentored you in the past, people you admire in your field, and people at your target companies are great people to meet with. Anyone who may be able to help you, or knows someone who can help, should go on your list.

    2. Find Them On LinkedIn

    Man looks something up on his laptop

    Look up your target companies on LinkedIn and see who works there. You can find their contact information easily on their LinkedIn profile. If they don’t have a profile, Google them to get their phone number or email address.

    3. Call Them Or Send Them A Message

    Woman sends a message to a LinkedIn connection with her phone

    Phone messages often go unreturned and inboxes are often full for many professionals. Be persistent, try multiple avenues of communication, or go through a contact’s assistant (but don’t harass them). Be clear that you just want a brief meeting to discuss a specific set of questions regarding their job, company, and industry, and that you are not inquiring about a job opportunity.

    4. Meet With Several Contacts Each Week

    Young woman shakes hands with a man

    Be committed to holding 2-3 informational interviews consistently. Stick to the amount of time that you mentioned when setting up the meeting and don’t go beyond it, no matter how tempted you might be! You can always set up another meeting or use additional questions as a reason to stay in touch and build the relationship.

    5. Bring Your Resume (Just In Case)

    Woman holds a resume during an interview

    Don’t offer it. But, if they ask for it, you’ll be prepared. Also, if the topic comes up in conversation, you can ask for advice on how to beef it up. Are there classes you should take? Organizations you might join? Get their feedback on what might make you a stronger candidate.

    6. Ask Relevant Questions About The Industry, Company, Or Position

    Man smiles during an interview

    • How did you become interested in this field?
    • What brought you to this company?
    • What is a typical day like in your position/department?
    • How much time do you spend doing ______ each day?
    • What types of problems do you solve in your position?
    • What can you tell me about the corporate culture?
    • What are the biggest challenges the company faces right now and in the future?
    • What skills and qualities make someone successful in this field?

    7. Give Your Branded Elevator Pitch, And Then Ask…

    Women talk at work

    • With the little you know about me, what suggestions do you have that might help me to break into the field or a company like yours?
    • If a position were to become available here, would you keep me in mind?
    • What other companies would you recommend for me to explore?

    8. Get More Connections Before The Meeting Is Concluded

    Man asks a question during an interview

    Ask who they know who might be a good person for you to speak with. Get their contact information. Ask if it’s okay to tell the new connection who referred you.

    9. Send A Thank-You Message

    Woman types on her laptop

    Do this within 24 hours in the format of your choice. Email is convenient and green. You might be perceived as tech-savvy. Or, you might be looked upon as impersonal. A handwritten note is perceived as more personal by some. Or, on the flipside, archaic. It’s up for debate and depends on your industry. Just pick one and thank your interviewee quickly.

    10. Stay In Touch

    Man checks LinkedIn on his phone

    Connect on LinkedIn and send occasional messages updating the contact on your progress. If you come across any articles that might help them, pass them along. Monitor the company and your contact using Google Alerts. When you discover they have gotten a promotion or have spoken at a conference, be sure to send a congratulatory email. Keeping in touch will help the relationship to grow.

    Eventually, the informational interviews you conduct will pay off. Word will spread that you are looking for a new position. People will remember your personality and respectfulness. The relationships you are cultivating will result in a network that is keeping you in mind for when their company is ready to hire. Before long, you will be interviewing for real!

    Need more help growing your network or navigating the job search?

    We’d love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you enhance your career.

    It’s time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!

    This article was originally published at an earlier date.

    You Might Be Sued Over Your Website’s Accessibility. Is It Worth Ignoring It?
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    You Might Be Sued Over Your Website’s Accessibility. Is It Worth Ignoring It?

    The year was 1996. I was 19 years old and living in Orlando, Florida, working at a vacation destination helmed by a certain murine mascot. As you might expect with a Florida August, my coworkers and I might as well have been working on the surface of the sun. But to this day, it’s not the heat I remember most (I’ve grown accustomed to that after all these years), it was the grating question emanating from the loudspeaker and the coworker with the mic in his hand:

    Would all wheelchair guests please stay to the left?

    Nails. On. A. Chalkboard. Even now!

    You see, working for that particular vacation destination meant a lot of training—training on company tradition, on customer service and recovery, cash handling, operations, cultural sensitivity, and more. But also among those topics was training for providing customer service to people who might use a wheelchair, who might be hard of sight or hearing, or who might have no visible disability at all. They were people with disabilities—not disabled people or, heaven forbid, wheelchair guests—because they were people first, not defined by whatever physical or motor or mental disability they might possess. What that coworker should have asked is:

    Would all guests using wheelchairs please stay to the left?

    That simple reversal of words addressed them as human beings first. And it’s with that spirit in mind that you as a business owner should consider your website or app.

    What Do You Mean, “My Website Should Be Accessible”?

    Is text on your website large enough or do colors possess high enough contrast, such that content can be easily read by someone who is hard of sight?

    Can screenreader technology successfully “read” your website’s content to a prospective customer who has been legally blind since birth and cannot see your website at all?

    Are “targets” like buttons sized appropriately to make them easily clickable by someone with arthritis who struggles to use a mouse?

    Are form fields programmed to be successively tabbed from one field to the next by a website visitor with a motor disability who cannot use a mouse at all and can only use their tab key?

    Are fancy animations purposeful and programmed to be toggled off and on by those whose condition, such as epilepsy, may be aggravated by the animations?

    Have you previously engaged in any kind of accessibility audit on your website or app and publicly professed the results of that audit?

    If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure” to any of those questions, it’s incumbent on you to find answers and quickly remedy any issues. Read on for why this matters and what you can do now.

    OK, I Get All Of That, But Why?

    That WWW you type (but shouldn’t have to) in front of web addresses? It stands for “world wide web,” and among the globe’s more than 7 billion inhabitants—your potential website visitors—one billion people live with some kind of disability according to The World Bank.

    In the U.S. alone, the CDC cites 61 million adults living with a disability. That’s one in four American adults.

    Firstly, and most importantly, website accessibility is the right thing to do. Put yourself in their place and imagine needing to look up your doctor’s office hours. Or wanting to check out a book from your local library. Or wanting to order takeout. Or simply wanting to buy the newest smartphone. Much like we’ve made room for parking spaces for those who are handicapped or closed-captioning on TV or doors wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, your website, too, must be user-friendly and provide an experience as closely akin to that experienced by those who are not disabled.

    Secondly, you also need to know there are legal ramifications for website owners. According to the American Bar Association, more than 8,000 web accessibility-related lawsuits were filed or removed between 2017 and 2020 in federal courts across the country. Three states—New York, Florida, and California—accounted for a great many of these lawsuits. But no website owner in any jurisdiction should consider themself immune to the possibility of legal action when their website fails to approach, much less meet, common accessibility standards.

    Lastly, many of the best practices related to accessibility, like image alt tags, are also SEO (search engine optimization) best practices. In other words, the investment you make in website accessibility can also have a positive impact on how Google and Bing see your website. Being thoughtful and proactive in making your site accessible can result in the site being ranked higher on search engines.

    I’m Convinced. What Should I Do?

    Know that web accessibility can be a complex topic. There are loads of different initialisms, acronyms, and numerical naming conventions—W3C, WCAG, 2.0, 2.1, 3, AA, AAA, and more.

    But your foremost job is simply operating and marketing your business. And that’s OK. This is where it’s key that you have a trusted web developer who has a firm handle on all of the current standards and continuing evolutions in the world of web accessibility. Ask this web developer at least a few of the following questions:

    • What elements will they specifically focus on in designing and developing the website or app? (You’ll want to hear them mention font sizes, color contrast, form accessibility, and semantic programming, to name a few.)
    • With which level of accessibility standard will their work comply? (Their answer should be at least version 2.1, level AA.)
    • What tools will they use to ensure accessibility? (They should be able to name several. Write their answers down and do your own research before hiring.)
    • What websites or apps have they recently launched that met or exceeded modern accessibility standards? (They should be readily able to offer proof of their work, which you can vet on your own before hiring.)

    Want to check your existing website? There are a number of steps you can take to begin improving the accessibility of your website:

    1. Firstly, Google offers its free Lighthouse tool (see image above). Using the Chrome browser, right-click anywhere on a given page and select “Inspect.” In the panel that appears, in the upper right, choose “Lighthouse” among the options. In the panel that now appears, choose the appropriate device type (desktop for most B2B brands and mobile for most B2C brands), then ensure that “Accessibility” is checked among the various performance categories that may be measured. Click the blue “Analyze…” button and do not click away from the webpage. Give the browser a minute or so and it will give you a summary of how the page scores for accessibility, as well as tips for improvement.
    2. After you’ve adequately addressed any accessibility-related issues, consider adding an accessibility statement to your website. The statement may be included among the footer navigation toward the bottom of each page of the website, typically alongside your privacy policy and terms of use. Think of your accessibility statement as a public profession of your commitment to operating a website that is accessible and what you’ve done to make that possible. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offers a free tool to develop this accessibility statement.
    3. Another tool that may be of use is an accessibility “healer” like accessiBe. You’ve likely seen the “little man” or wheelchair icon as a button at the bottom of many different sites, and there are competitors to accessiBe like Userway. Tools like these allow website visitors who have disabilities to toggle increased color contrast on the site or larger text size or any number of different features. But to be clear, tools like accessiBe are not Band-Aids; they do not take the place of the fundamental work to ensure a site is accessible in the first place. These tools simply add another layer of accommodation for website visitors who need it.

    Finally, you can always reach out to digital marketing leaders like myself. While I’m no attorney and cannot advise you on whether or not your website or app will pass muster in a court of law, I and many of my peers would always be happy to answer your accessibility-related questions. We’re here to offer direction however you may need it.

    So go out and start building a better, more accessible world starting with your very own website. We’ll be collectively improved for it, including that coworker from so many years ago. Don’t be that guy.