Do you have career change in mind for 2019? If so, have you considered conducting informational interviews?
Here’s a startling statistic: One out of every 200 resumes (some studies put the number as high as 1,500 resumes) results in a job offer. One out of every 12 informational interviews, however, results in a job offer. That’s why informational interviewing is the ultimate networking technique, especially considering that the purpose of informational interviewing is not to get job offers. Job offers just happen to be a delightful side benefit to this valuable practice.
Informational interviewing is just what it sounds like — interviewing designed to produce information. What kind of information? The information you need to choose or refine a career path, learn how to break in and find out if you have what it takes to succeed.
When you are considering entering or changing to a certain career path or switching employers, it just makes all kinds of sense to talk to people in that field. Yet most people never do.
Informational interviewing is an expanded form of chatting with your network contacts. It’s the process of spending time with your network contacts in a highly focused conversation that provides you with the intelligence you need to launch or boost your career.
