Informational interviews

- by Jennifer Blair

Informational interviewing, a.k.a. networking, is a very effective way to learn and make contacts, in not just technical writing, but any field you are considering as a career option.

Richard Nelson Bolles wrote the definitive book on informational interviewing: What Color is Your Parachute, the classic job hunter's bible. It has been around for years and is easily found in most libraries or bookstores.

The points I'm going to make here aren't anything Bolles hasn't already covered in his book. Rather, they are points of his that I want to emphasize, based on my own experience as an informational interviewer and as an interview subject.

I initiated about 30 informational interviews when I was investigating technical writing as a career, and, 2 years later, I've had about half that number of people come to see me for interviews.

Informational interviewing is difficult, especially at first. It's not easy picking up the phone and asking a stranger or distant acquaintance for a favour. But it gets easier, and even enjoyable, if you persevere and respect the following rules:

Respect people's time

If someone agrees to see you during the week, they are probably giving up part of their lunch hour, or they likely have to make up the time they take away from their work to talk to you.

Don't ask for more than 20 minutes, and ,when your time is up, thank them profusely and leave.

Those of you who were interview subjects of mine will chuckle at this; I routinely asked for 30 minutes, and I often stayed for an hour or longer, if I thought things were going well and my subject seemed to be having fun. I see now that this was a mistake.

If you made a good impression, you did it within the first five minutes. You gain nothing by staying longer and you risk wearing out your welcome, so don't do it.

Put your most crucial questions at the beginning of the interview, so that, if you reach the end of the 20 minutes, you've already got the most important information, even if your final questions didn't get answered.

You can always follow up with an e-mail or very quick phone call, if your subject is willing to answer the questions at a later time.

Take charge of the interview

Bring a list of questions, and set the pace and direction of your interviews. You haven't got much time, so make sure you get the info you came for.

In the process, you will show yourself to be organized, direct, and curious, which will make a good impression on your interview subjects and put them at ease.

Make sure your subjects do most of the talking - remember, you're there to listen and learn.

Always send thank you notes, and include your resume

Your interview subjects may file the resume away for future reference, or pass it on to someone who might be hiring.

Or they may recycle it with last month's scrap paper.

Either way, you've got nothing to lose.

Get the names of more contacts from your interview subjects

Otherwise, your network isn't going to grow.

When you've got a reference, it's easier to ask for an interview, and it's more likely that you'll get one.

Take Richard Bolles's admonition about trickery to heart

Nothing makes a worse impression than misrepresenting your agenda.

An informational interview is not a job interview. You want to make a good impression, but you are not trying to sell yourself to get a job.

Read What Color is Your Parachute if you're not sure of the difference and relationship between the two kinds of interview.

Someone once left me a message asking me to call back with information about the STC. When I returned the call, this person didn't want STC information, but an informational interview.

When this person turned up at my office, they made it very obvious that they didn't want an informational interview, but a job.

I gave the person the 30 minutes I agreed to, and I was very polite to the person when they followed up with a phone call, but guess what I did with the resume?

Don't begin the interview talking about yourself

This is not a Bolles point, this is my very own opinion.

I've seen a few people do this, (including myself, when I was a rookie) and it's a mistake.

It's fine to introduce yourself with a one sentence opener like, "I'm a recent UBC grad with an English degree, and I'm researching technical writing as a possible career option."

It's a mistake to start with a 2-3 minute summary of your educational and work background, for a few reasons:

• If you spend 2 minutes talking about yourself, that's 10% of the time you get, wasted talking about stuff you already know
• It might make your subject suspicious that you're after a job
• It may seem as though you're trying to get your subject to gear all his or her answers to your particular needs and circumstances. It's your job to take what your subject says and apply it to your situation. Your subject's job is simply to give you his or her experience and point of view. If your interview subjects want to know your background, don't worry; they'll ask.

Don't make them work to help you

Make everything easy for your prospective interview subjects.

Don't leave a message and ask them to call you back, don't ask them to meet you anywhere that's out of their way.

Be persistent, but polite.

If you make it easy for them, they are more likely to give you the 20 minutes you ask for.

Some people never answer their phones. Those people can be reached by e-mail sometimes, or you can leave a voice mail and hope that they will return your call. (Sometimes they do.)

Get started

Come to STC meetings to meet people and set up your first informational interviews.

Before long, you'll have as many names as you'll need to conduct the interviews you must do to determine if technical writing is the career for you.

Good luck.

--Jennifer Blair

(Jennifer Blair is a former member of the Membership Team for the Canada West Coast Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication)