Preparing for an Informational Interview

The point of an informational interview is to listen and learn. Keep that in mind as you prepare. Minimal preparation should include researching the person, the industry, and the organization in advance of your scheduled meeting.

Always remember the “Don’t Waste the General Counsel” Rule: Do not waste the person’s time with elementary questions that you could have answered yourself. This is especially true for senior people!

As a minimum, you should be prepared to answer the following two questions:

"What do you want to do?"

It’s fine not to be 100% certain – this is why you’re doing informational interviews, after all – but you should have a general statement ready (e.g., “I’m just starting to explore, but I can tell you that I’m looking for a job that has the following characteristics…”).

"How can I help you?"

Explain why you thought this person’s background made them an appropriate informational interview candidate, and be honest (as long as it doesn’t involve your starting by asking for a job or job leads). If you don’t know exactly what it is that you want from this person, but the person is generally in your field of potential interest, you can start by asking for their perspective on your current thought process or by asking them to weigh in on your plans for next steps.

Spend some time creating a list of questions that this person is uniquely qualified to answer. You can find sample general questions below. If you want questions specific to a particular career track (e.g., in-house, government), sample questions are available under Exploring Specific Career Tracks.