Now that we have worked on our one minute commercial, a script for networking, and learned about cold calling, let’s go over informational interviewing.
Informational interviewing is an important tool to use with all three practices we have discussed. Informational interviewing is the act of gathering information about the career field, and specific companies you may want to work for. These are usually informal interviews that take place inside a company that you have an interest in.
Often times when we are doing a work assessment with our clients we are also conducting an informational interview to learn more about the culture, the work, and the environment that our client will be joining. This way we can make a better-informed decision if it’s a good fit.
You can also use informational interviewing by calling employers using your script we previously discussed. You could ask them questions such as:
“How did you get where you are now?”
or
“What would you suggest for somebody trying to break into the field?”
This is a good tool because it puts you inside an organization, gives you a hands on approach to deciding if a company is best for you, and helps you better decide if you truly have interest in the field. This often times helps prevent burnout, or accepting a job that may not be a good fit for you.
by Maggie Cromeens
Maggie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal and Fine Arts with a Major in Communication/Public Relations and a Minor in Non Profit Management from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has worked for Compass Resource Group since 2011. She assists adults in Texas with disabilities in achieving their employment goals by providing training, job placement assistance, environmental work assessments, social skills training, and job coaching. She has been instrumental in shaping the services at Compass Resource Group to meet the needs of young adults on the Autism Spectrum who are transitioning from high school. She is a member of the DARS Statewide Developmental Disorders Team