Informational interviews are one of the easiest ways for students to connect with and learn from a professional. And the benefits of an informational interview are many, including:

• Learn more about fields, organizations, and roles of interest to you
• Test assumptions you’ve developed in the above bullet
• Develop an understanding of nuances in the hiring process for an organization or role
• Build credibility as a candidate because you can speak about projects, challenges, and ways to succeed in specific fields, organizations, and roles
• Connect with another person 1:1, building your community of professionals who will advocate for you when the time comes for you to apply, interview, and consider offers

• Overview of Informational Interviews

  If you’re new to informational interviews, it may be helpful to learn more about what they are. Remember, we call them informational interviews, but they could be called informational meetings/chats, coffee chats, or a number of other names.

  ✅ Review the sources below (articles, videos, and slide decks), using the ones that resonate best with you to build your foundation with informational interviewing.

  • View this video from Steve Dalton, author of the 2 Hour Job Search, to introduce you to informational interviewing, the benefits, and a framework (the TIARA method) for conducting one.
  • Read this HBR article about how to get the most out of an informational interview. It highlights some additional advice from Dorie Clark, Fuqua lecturer and communications expert.
  • Talk to your peers and alums about their experience conducting informational interviews. Learn from their successes and mistakes so you can approach your informational interviews with more confidence.

  📚Additional Materials

  • Informational Interviews: One of Easiest Ways to Connect | Duke Career Hub

• Request an Informational Interview

  This is your first opportunity to make a positive impression with the person you’re hoping to connect with. It’s so important we dedicate an entire segment of the OCC to the topic.

  ✅ Review the Make a Request section of this site to see best practices for requesting an informational interview.

  ✅ Reflect on your own experience when a stranger has reached out to you for the first time. Perhaps it was a younger student who was interested in your master’s program. What approach did their impression leave on you? Consider the same reflection, but this time, put yourself in the “shoes” of the recipient of your request. What do you need to communicate for a positive experience?

  ✅ Consider utilizing Ask a Blue Devil to request an informational interview. Here’s a site and video that will introduce the tool and let you know how to best use it.

• Prepare for an Informational Interview

  Congratulations! You’ve made a good impression with your outreach and have a time to meet (virtually, by phone, or in-person). Your next opportunity to build your credibility will be influenced by your preparation. We don’t advocate preparing to the extent you are an expert on the organization or role, but enough to where you can converse intelligently and ask good questions customized for the person.

  ✅ Research the person, role organization, and field. The power of Google and other free technology allows you to be pretty informed going into the conversation.

  • Use Duke’s Business Intelligence tools to review topics and trends. Remember you can request help from a reference librarian to be your guide.
  • Use LinkedIn to learn more about the person’s professional history and identify groups or interests you may have in common.
  • View press releases, company investor calls or reports, company websites, and other public notices to understand the current state of the company and their plan moving forward.

  ✅ Prepare questions you will ask in the informational interview, focused on the individual and with the goal of connecting and learning.

• During an Informational Interview

  You’ve arrived at the conversation ready with engaging questions you’ve prepared. Use some of the resources below to help you think about the art of conversation and what you can do to set the interaction up for success.

  ✅ Refer back to this section to refresh how to introduce yourself. Remember you want to spend most of the time in conversation. Take only a few minutes to introduce yourself choosing to include the most relevant information for this conversation, with this specific individual.

  ✅ Read this article with tips for making conversations better. Don’t be confused or wary by the fact the article is about a marriage counseling approach. Read about halfway down and you’ll see the learning is relevant to many conversations and the tips are ones that can apply to an informational interview.

  ✅ Consider this slightly shorter article with 5 tips to have quality conversations.

• Follow-up & Next Steps After an Informational Interview

  This is one of the most important steps in building a connection, and potentially moving them from stranger to future advocate. Make a plan for how you will follow-up and stay connected when the conversations go well.

  ✅ Review the follow-up to keep your network and search alive section for robust information about sending thank you notes and status updates to individuals you have met to stay connected.

  ✅ Use a system to track your past and upcoming meetings. Current students use custom-built Excel sheets or Interstride’s meeting tracker to enter who you met with, contact information, and valuable notes for follow-up. The valuable notes are important for knowing what you want to follow-up on later.

  ✅ Reflect on the feedback, knowledge, and advice gained to adapt your search. Ask a Career Coach to review your approach if you aren’t having the experiences you hoped for.