Below is a guide I use when planning questions for an informational interview to ask a professional. In the previous blog post I discussed how to send out email outreach to professionals to make requests. Click here to read.

It will be very helpful to read the previous blog post first, then watch the video above and read the guide below. The part with red fonts is where you have to insert an item.

Note of appreciation: Thanks for this opportunity.

Option to exclude questions: Below is a list of questions we will discuss during our meeting, however, if there are any questions listed below that you don’t feel comfortable responding to, I’ll respect your wishes to exclude them from the discussion. Also, the questions may be reduced or changed depending on how much time we have to speak.
 
Meeting time: Before we start the meeting, we scheduled for *insert minutes,* I want to be respectful of your time. How much time do you have to spend with me? 
 
Platform of research: I researched you and your work using LinkedIn. So, a lot of my questions are based on this research. Feel free to correct me where I am wrong and fill the gaps as needed or add information you think will be valuable to me.
 
Education:

• You had your bachelor’s degree in *insert major.* 
  • When you pursued that bachelor’s degree what did you imagine you’d be doing career-wise long-term and short-term?
  • How has your initial plan remained the same or transformed over the years?
• Considering the kind of position you hold today as a *insert title,* if you could go back to school or restart your academic experience, would you study the same thing?
• There is a gap between *insert gap,* what happened between those years?

• Is there something about the industry that made you pursue a degree in it or it was more about passion and interest for you?

 
Work Experience:

• Knowing now what you didn’t know then, do you think that your first role out of university as a *insert role* was a good or appropriate career start for you?
  
• If there was one advice you wish you received about that first career full-time work experience, what would it be?
• What has been your most exciting work experience, and why?
• What has been your least interesting work experience, and why?
• You longest time spent working for a company is *insert number* years. Compared to all your other roles, what made you stay?
• Tell me about your current job at *insert company name* as the *insert role.*
  • What does an average day look like?
  • What about the job or community enhanced your personal, professional, or career outlook?
  • How did you grow within that time?
  • Has there been an opportunity for mentorship in that role, if yes, how valuable has that been?
  • Has there been an opportunity for advancement within that period?
  • What is your most significant challenge in the role?
  • How has your work or the mediums of conducting it been affected as a result of the pandemic?
  • What is your favorite part of the job?
  • How do you imagine you’ll grow within the next couple of years?
• What part of your career experience, or which job has given you a sense of fulfillment?
  • What does fulfillment at a role mean to you?
  • What does success at your job or role mean to you?

 
General Questions:

• What are your career/professional aspirations?
• Do you have any intention to pursue a higher academic degree, if yes, in what field and why? If no, why not?
• Who is your career role model?
• Have you considered other entrepreneurial or freelance pursuits outside your work? If yes, why? If no, why not?

 
Questions for me:

• Considering this job market, is there any advice you’d give me regarding my research or towards seeking a full-time work opportunity?
  • Where would you recommend that I look?
  • Will you be willing to advocate for me if an opportunity to do so opens up within your network?

• My top career interests are *insert 2-4 interests.* Is there any advice you’d give me towards landing a job relative to those roles or that industry?

 
Concluding questions:
Is there is anything I haven’t asked that you’ll be willing to share or discuss?

During my job search, one of the things that kept me going was doing informational interviews. Doing informational interviews were very helpful for the following reasons:

• Establishing connections that could be of advocacy use
• Hearing about people’s experiences and learning from them
• Practicing my interviewing skills

 
Although informational interviews have continually been praised for helping people gain advocates to secure jobs, it wasn’t the case for me. The informational interviews I did were very profitable in that they helped expand my professional network and receive advise about best practices in a job search. 
 
As a writer, I have received several emails for interviews about my work in the past, so I knew firsthand, the pet-peeves that came with poor communication for interview requests as well as unthoughtful interview questions. Especially in the pandemic when so many people were reaching out to professionals for informational interviews, I didn’t want to be lost in the mix. I didn’t want my email outreach for an interview to go unread. In this blog post, I’ll share my best practices for an informational interview.
 
Let’s dive in!
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