Informational Interview

What Is an Informational Interview?

An informational interview is a short conversation, usually twenty to thirty minutes, that you request with someone whose role, company, or industry you want to understand. You're the interviewer: you ask about their day-to-day work, how they got there, and what the field actually rewards. The defining feature is what it isn't. You are not asking for a job, a referral, or a review of your resume, and you say so up front. That promise is why busy people accept. Most enjoy talking about their work to someone genuinely curious, and a request with no hidden invoice attached is easy to grant.

Why Does It Beat a Cold Application?

Because it swaps the most crowded channel for the least crowded one. A cold application is a file competing with hundreds of files through resume screening; an informational interview is a conversation competing with almost nothing. That's doubly true for career changers, whose resumes translate poorly through keyword filters but whose stories translate well across a table. There's also a human-preference tailwind: Pew Research Center found that 66% of US adults would rather not apply to an employer that uses AI to make hiring decisions, and whatever you think of automation, that instinct points at something real. People trust people. After a good conversation, you're no longer an anonymous applicant; you're the curious person they had coffee with, and when a role opens they think of you before any cover letter arrives.

How Do You Ask for an Informational Interview?

Short, specific, and easy to say yes to. Three sentences do it.

The 5 Questions Worth Asking

Skip anything Google can answer. Ask what only they know:

• What does a normal week actually look like in your role, hour by hour?
• What separates the people who do well here from the people who struggle?
• What do you know now that you wish you'd known before entering this field?
• How did you get from where I am to where you are, and what would you skip?
• Who else should I talk to, and may I mention you sent me?

The Follow-Up That Keeps the Door Open

Send a thank-you note within a day, and make it specific: name the one insight that changed your thinking, not a generic 'thanks for your time'. Then, and this is the part almost everyone skips, close the loop later. When you act on their advice, take the class, talk to the person they suggested, or land the interview, send a two-line update. That message costs you a minute and turns a single conversation into a relationship, because people become invested in advice they've seen you use. A follow-up letter after a real milestone is how informational interviews quietly turn into referrals you never had to request.

The Cardinal Rule: Never Bait-and-Switch

You promised this wasn't a job ask, so it can't become one. Sliding your resume across the table at minute eighteen, or ending with 'so, are you hiring?', converts a generous stranger into someone who feels used, and they'll remember it. The discipline pays. If the conversation goes well, they know why you're exploring the field; if a role fits, they'll raise it themselves, and an offer to refer you that they volunteered is worth ten you extracted. Your only jobs are to be curious, be brief, and follow up. Let the relationship do the asking.