Informational Interviewing

Interested in learning more about an industry or career area? Explore potential career fields, deepen your understanding of an area or organization, or set the groundwork for future opportunities by organizing an informational interview. 

Informational interviews are conversations with alumni, supervisors, family friends, or relatives about their career journeys. These may be formal, scheduled meetings or they may be more casual conversations over coffee or lunch. These career conversations are a great way to picture yourself in different roles and learn next steps.

Who to Talk to?

• Consider people in your life who are doing interesting work. Think about anyone in your community: relatives, family friends, professors, old coworkers, neighbors, etc. 
• Find Macalester alumni by searching on MacConnect. You can search for alumni based on their major, location, employer, occupation, job title, industry and more. Alumni with the Career Helper icon are especially interested in having career conversations with students.
• Find Macalester alumni or other professionals by searching on LinkedIn. You can search Macalester alumni on LinkedIn to see their connections, work history and more. Read our LinkedIn Quick Start Guide (gdoc) to get started.

How to Reach out?

• Reach out via email, text, or LinkedIn/social media direct messaging
• Introduce yourself
• Let them know how you found them or who you know in common
• Share why you’d like to speak with them specifically
• Ask to meet to talk about their career path and share advice about their field

What to Talk About?

• Introduce yourself by sharing your background, skills, and interests. 
• Find your shared passions and talk about them. Why are you talking with this person specifically? 
• Ask about their background, education, and job history. How did they get into this area of work? What experiences helped them get where they are? 
• Ask about their current career. What does a typical day look like? What are projects they are excited about? 
• Ask about the future. Where do they see this field heading? Do they have advice for you to help you prepare for this field? 
• End the conversation by thanking them for their time, sharing briefly what you learned, and asking to stay in touch or if they know anyone else to meet with. Afterwards, send a thank you message.