How to Schedule, Prepare for & Conduct your Informational Interview
- Identify & Research Your Interviewer
Your interviewer is a busy professional giving their time to help you. Spend some time researching them using your paralegal investigation skills! Find out as much as you can about your interviewer’s work history, educational background, and their awards, certifications, and memberships. You can find lots of information on LinkedIn (remember to update your own LinkedIn page before beginning research on others). You can also google your interviewer – they may have been interviewed or featured on the web. Make absolutely sure you have read the information on any firm websites about your interviewer. Your goal is to determine what you and your interviewer have in common and to have things to talk about with them. It is also extremely disrespectful to have an informational interview with someone and not research them first. Hopefully, your research will have you excited to meet with them! Be sure to jot down some notes about them, including questions you want to ask them, and make them as specific as possible.
- Set Learning Goals for the Meeting
Think about what you hope to learn from your interviewer. While it can be anxiety producing to have an interview with someone, remember this one is focused on you learning from your interviewer – so what do you want to learn? Based on what you want to learn, and what you’ve already learned about your interviewer, come up with a list of one to three learning goals you have for the meeting. This will help you remain focused during the interview and get as much out of it as possible.
Example learning goals:
- Learn how this firm utilizes paralegals, and whether the way paralegals are used is changing.
- Learn about the career path from paralegal to lawyer.
- Learn about estate planning practice.
Your learning goals should be broader than the questions you might ask to explore that learning goal with your interviewer.
- Draft Questions for your Interviewer
Do not attend your meeting without questions to ask, and do not ask a question you could have found answers to online. Based on your research in step one, come up with some questions for your interviewer that will help you meet your learning goal(s).
- Complete the Interview
Dress neatly and appropriately, as you would for a job interview. Even for a virtual or phone call. The way you are dressed can help you feel more prepared and relaxed for an interview.
Arrive or log-in on time or a few minutes early. Be sure you have your interviewer’s phone number or other contact information handy so you can make contact in case technology interferes.
Take notes. No one likes giving valuable information to someone who is not going to remember it because they didn’t write it down. You don’t need to take notes constantly, trying to write down everything your interviewer says, but keep a paper and pen handy to jot down areas you want to follow-up on, questions you don’t want to forget to ask, and any important information your interviewer gives you.
Don’t use the interview to look for a job. The purposes of this interview are learning and practicing, not job seeking. If your interviewer really does hold the keys to your perfect job, at the end of the meeting, ask if you can set up another meeting with them to talk about opportunities at the firm.
To start, give a brief overview of yourself and your education and/or work background. Be prepared to direct the interview, but also let the conversation flow naturally, and encourage the interviewee to do most of the talking.
Respect the person’s time. Limit the meeting to the agreed-upon timeframe.
At the end of the meeting, ask the person if you may contact them again in the future with other questions, and ask for names of other people to meet so as to gain different perspectives.
- Follow-up
Send a simple thank-you note within 1-2 days to express your appreciation for the time and information given. Based on whether the informational interview was relatively informal or more businesslike, this may be a brief handwritten note or an email.
Keep in touch with the person, especially if you had a particularly nice interaction; let them know that you followed up on their advice and the outcome. This person could become an important part of your network.