Task description: Informational interview
Description:
An informational interview is a key networking and career exploration tool available to help you gain a better understanding of your future occupation and industry. The ‘insider’ information you get from professionals can help give you clear insights into the types of skills you will need, what to expect day-to-day in particular roles or organisations, tips for the recruitment process and ideas about how to attain volunteer work. Like many other activities you will undertake while you are preparing for your career, this task may seem daunting. You should know that many students who have conducted these types of interviews rate them as one of the most useful things they did to help them understand their industry, their future career options and to understand the links between their university learning and future career. Once you have conducted your interview you willwrite a XXXXXXXXXXword reflection
on your experience and the information you have gained (more detail will be provided on the Learning@Griffith site).
How to guide:
Do this first – ‘Information Interviewing Tutorial’ athttp://www.quintcareers.com/informational_interviewing.html
Then,
1. Identify some companies or organisations in which you would like to work, or some positions that you would like to fill.
2. Identify some people that you would like to interview.
3. Research the companies/organisations. What do they do? What do they produce? This is vital.
4. Research the person/position. What do they do? Use LinkedIn and a google search.
5. Contact your prospective interviewee by phone or email to request an appointment. Whilst you only need to conduct ONE interview for this task, you might need to contact a few people to secure an interview. (You might do some more for your own benefit later).
6. Formulate the questions you will ask. What do you really want to know about the company or position and how the person got there?
7. Attend and conduct your interview. If you want to record the interview, you MUST seek permission from the interviewee BEFORE the interview starts.
8. Write notes during and immediately after the interview.
9. Write your reflection.