Tag: informational interviews

How to Conduct a Good Informational Interview

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Earlier this week, I was blogging about why you should do informational interviews, but what if you don’t know how to go about it? Over the past two years, I’ve gone on about 14 or 15 informational interviews. While I can’t say I’m an expert, I do have a bit of an idea of what has worked for me in the past:

Be Flexible About Location

Offer to let your person pick the spot you two meet. It helps make the interview more convenient for him/her, and if it’s closer to his/her work, you might increase the length of the interview by cutting his/her commute time.Read More »

The Value of Informational Interviews

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I’ve mentioned informational interviews before, but as my college career is winding up, I’m realizing more and more the value of these interviews. I started chasing after professional individuals the fall of my sophomore year in college, and while it was terrifying (“Hi, you don’t know me, but can I take you out for coffee and pick your brain sometime?”), informational interviews have taught me a lot about several different industries, and I became aware of jobs I never knew existed. Here are a couple reasons you should consider finding some individuals to interview during your time as a budding professional:

Networking

Because that’s how everyone says you get a job now… ‘Nuff said.Read More »

5 Reasons College Students Should be on LinkedIn

celinekuehn5 Comments

The use of LinkedIn by college students varies anywhere between enthusiasm and ennui. I find myself on the former end of the spectrum. Despite how much some of my fellow students hate it, think it’s a bore, waste of time, etc., I personally have profited greatly from it. Through LinkedIn, I’ve kept in touch with professional men and women whom I otherwise would probably have never seen again. The website has also given me the chance to scope out potential jobs, read from a pool of excellent job resources, and score several informational interviews. So, college students (or job seekers in general), here’s some reasons you should consider this great (and free) tool:

1. Professional Connections
This is the core of LinkedIn—to make connections with those in the professional world. For college students, this is a great opportunity to follow up with a guest speaker who came to your class, peek through their achievements and how they got started, and most importantly, connect with them so you can interview them personally. (More on that in a second.)

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