Networking Interviews

Everyone looking for work these days keep hearing about the “Informational Interview.” Job seekers are told that they are supposed to ask for informational interviews. They are told, call up a person working at one of your target companies and ask for an informational interview. Meanwhile, the person being called is confused when the job seeker asks for an informational interview. In people’s minds, interview equals job opening and if they don’t have any openings they cannot imagine what the interview is for.

Additionally, many job seekers are confused by the term and goal of an informational interview: “The purpose of an informational interview is to get information about a field of work from someone who has some firsthand knowledge.”  This is all well and good if you are just starting out looking for your first job or if you are changing careers. But, what if you already know a great deal about your field and you’re not looking to change careers. What other information are you looking for? That’s easy: job leads or names of contacts who may have job leads.

This is why I like the term networking interviews or networking meetings. There are some other things you want to do in these meetings.

1. Communicate your skills and abilities, i.e., what you have to offer the marketplace.
2. Share your ideal position in terms of the roles and responsibilities you excel at.
3. Ask if they know anyone or anything that could utilize  your skills and abilities.
4. Show them your “Target Company" list and ask if they have any contacts that they could refer you to.
5. While showing them your “Target Company" list ask them if there are any companies that are missing from your list. Then ask if they have any contacts at that company.
6. Thanks them for the time to took with you and tell them how much you appreciate their support and referrals.
7. Then follow up the next day with a phone call thanking them again, and share any updates regarding their referral.
8. Later send an email or call the person letting them know how their connections aided your job search.

These meeting should take no more than 15 to 20 minutes so you can rest assured that you’re not being a huge disruption to the person’s day. Additionally, many of my clients have reported that these meetings turn into interviews for a hidden or posted job. So whether you call it an informational interview, a networking interview, or a courtesy interview, it’s all about presenting yourself with the goal of getting a new contacts... leading to a job offer.

Career vs. Job Transition

  I define career transition as moving from one job type in one industry into another job type in a  different industry. Compared to job transition – moving from one job to another in the same or similar industry – career transition is far more difficult. This is because most people screening applicants are looking for people who have done the job before and they are not looking at all the people who can do the job. This is a result of all the applications a company receives for any given job posting. It makes sense  to screen out as many resumes as possible to get to a manageable number. Later we’ll discuss how to overcome this fact of life.

If we agree that it is harder to transition careers vs. transitioning jobs, why change careers? Let’s look at two examples of why someone would want to change careers. I work with a lot of folks who are over 45 years old. Some of these men and women have been on the same job, with the same company for twenty, twenty-five, even thirty years. Some of these people are really tired, they are burned out, or they are sick of the job and need a change. Some folks are in an industry that cherishes youth and the job’s demands are set up for younger professionals. For example, one fellow was a steel worker who worked building high rise buildings. At 49 he’s considered an old man even though he’s still young to many of us. The saying, “It’s a young man’s game!” really makes the point.  


When I work with clients who decide to change careers the first thing to do is outline the client’s transferable skills as part of a skills assessment. These are the skills that transcend any specific job description but are essential for many different careers and job roles. My favorite one “Interpersonal Relationship Skills” is part of many job descriptions. Often there are parts of our job that we love doing that we don’t realize are completely transferable to several different career arenas.


After we identify the client’s transferable skills, I then shift to discover their key or core competency. This is what the client does best and in many instances what they love doing most. I had a person tell me recently that without a job coach it took her almost two years to discover her core competency in order to shift her career to the job she now has and loves.


With an understanding of my core competency and transferable skills in line, you can now start appraising different job descriptions and careers to move into.  It’s important to realize that letting go of your past to move on to your future career is probably the hardest part of career transition.  There is some effort required to start seeing yourself in the new career. This is important if you are ever going to sell yourself to a hiring manager.  


Next time we’ll look at what it takes to get noticed in a new industry or field.