How Can You Explore?
We strongly suggest that before you look for internships and/or jobs, you do a lot of informational interviewing. This process involves talking with real people to both investigate options and start building your “tribe” of people to help you and take risks for you in the future.
It is a process of thoughtfully connecting with alumni from your school and industry professionals who are just out of school or another 5-10 years older to talk about their paths (NOT about looking for a job or internship).
It is a meeting with a person about what they do. It is not an interview and should be done weeks or months ahead of a formal job search.
Other Interview Sources
Can I get information on people’s jobs without actually talking with them? Yes, but then you don’t get the possible referrals and unique insights from your own questions.
- Roadtrip Nation: Videos from more than 10 years of interviews across wide fields of industry
- CandidCareer: Videos from a shared programs with UNL
- YouTube and podcasts galore! So many organizations have added interviews with people on their careers in their YouTube channels and podcasts.
These interview sources might inspire you about questions to ask and styles of conversations for your own Informational Interview processes.
Basics about Informational Interviewing
- You can find nuggets of directions in the What Color is Your Parachute book. This is the granddaddy of informational interviews—where it all began.
- You can get a good summary list and outline of how to set them up at the UCLA Career Center PDF from ImaginePhD out of UC San Francisco.
- There is also a long list of suggested questions at https://www.livecareer.com/quintessential/informational-interview-questions.
OneLifeTools
One Life Tools, a career narrative assessment system based in Canada, has a friendly outline of what they call “Field Research & Field Trip.”
They have Five Keys to Success:
- FIND good people—your personal network, LinkedIn connections, parents’ contacts, and contacts you would like to know
- INSIGHTS you can get: explore, notice clues, build relationships, find unposted jobs, gain confidence, make choices, and rule out possibilities
- EASY for them to say “yes”—get an introduction, ask for advice, make it an easy 15-20 minutes, and ask for another lead if they decline (or say yes)
- LIST your questions and listen. Be prepared, list your questions, be professional, take notes, and write thank-yous.
- DOs and Don’ts: buy them coffee, make it conversational, ask for referrals, follow up, listen more than talk, etc.
Link to OneLifeTools Field Research Guide, including their 20 sample questions
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley’s Career Center has done a nice video on how to do informational interviewing, including how to research alumni from your own school on LinkedIn. Cal Berkeley also has other good resources at https://career.berkeley.edu/start-exploring/informational-interviews/.
UNL
You can find a searchable list of UNL alumni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-nebraska-lincoln/people/
The UNL Career Center has more resources, including “TIARA” questions from the Two-Hour Job Search Book at this link.