Informational Interview Mistakes To Avoid and Questions To Ask

hello and welcome to another cheeky scientist light training I'm Isaiah ankle and today we are talking about informational interview mistakes puts on mistakes first and then questions what are the questions you want to ask so what is an informational interview and who do you interview during an informational interview first of all informational interviews are interviews that you set up to discover if a position is right for you or to learn more about a particular job position and it's a very effective way to get actual interviews for a job so if you've been uploading resumes online and not hearing anything back or if you've been networking but not getting any referrals the step you're likely missing is setting up informational interviews where does this step fit into the overall job search process after networking and adding value to a particular industry professional or building up your network on LinkedIn you want to move to the step of setting up an informational interview this can be as simple as a 5-minute call with someone that's currently working at a company you're interested in or in a field you're interested in or it could be a sit-down it could be a lunch or even a cup of coffee with somebody and very often these informational interviews turn into actual interviews but only if you do them right and to make to set up an effective informational interview it starts right when you reach out it starts during that networking phase when you start contacting someone who's working at a company who you're interested in interviewing okay and the biggest one of the biggest mistakes that phd's make when they try to set up their first informational interview is that they just reach out to somebody they don't know or reach out to somebody without getting an introduction first or reach out to somebody and ask for a favor which is the informational interview this is something you shouldn't do instead you need to add value so don't make the mistake of asking first or too soon if you meet somebody for the first time you haven't really built up a rapport maybe you just met them once at a networking event you talk to him for a couple of minutes at least follow up with them online a couple of times and add value right a complement their work or their recent promotion whatever it might be but make sure you're adding that value we've done other videos on adding value you do have a lot of value to add you can comment on some you know publication that they have you can read their LinkedIn profile or get involved in the same LinkedIn group build that rapport first before getting them to commit to an informational interview because it is a commitment so again don't make the mistake of asking for the informational interview the first time you meet somebody or the first time you reach out to them on LinkedIn build that rapport first add value first the second thing the second mistake that most PhDs make is they don't clarify the time and topic commitment ok that's always a mistake you need to make time dependent and topic dependent requests ok time dependent and topic depend of request this means that when you get to the point of asking for an informational interview you need to lower the intensity of the request right lower the commitment level don't make it seem like it's a very big formal deal what you might want to do is call someone up on the phone and say you know I'm going to be in the area and I'd love to stop by and talk to you for five minutes right or it was great catching up with you at the networking event do you have time for a 5-minute call or you know I'm going to be in the area anyway can I drop by with a cup of coffee and ask you a couple of questions all right so lower the intensity of the request make it informal because an informational interview should be informal it's a discussion you know so it needs to be time dependent if you're sending a message make sure you say do you have time to talk for five minutes I have just three questions I'd be very specific with the time and even the number of questions you're going to ask and then tell them the topic of the question right tell them that you have three questions that you want to ask them about their their current job because you're very interested in getting into the industry don't say I want a job and I want you to give me a referral instead just show your enthusiasm for the position I'm really interested in this job I'm really interested in this field and I would love to learn more about it do you have five minutes I just have three questions I'd love to ask you mostly on the company culture and your experience in the role okay so again don't make the mistake of not clarifying the time or topic commitment third and finally very big mistake do not interrogate right as phd sometimes we can get very intense we write out fifteen or five hundred questions on a legal pad and then we show up like we're a police officer or a lawyer you know interrogating them or composing them right you don't want to come off this way instead you want to have you know some questions written down and prepared but maybe you don't even show that you have the questions written down just memorize them in your head and then have a conversation right sit down have a conversation know that know a few of the questions you're going to ask and let them take the conversation to where they want to take it right if they start veering off track and talking about something that wasn't on your question list to begin with so be it let it go remember the most important part of an informational interview is setting up that relationship so that you have someone you can ask for a referral down the road because they met you in person they talked to you you have more rapport now they're working at that company now you can ask then after the informational interview for any other people they can introduce you to anybody else that might be worthwhile for you to talk to alright so think to put the relationship first you want to approach it more like you're a journalist not a lawyer not a police officer okay so ask questions let them talk let them take the conversation to where they want to take it okay so what about those questions even if you're doing it correctly you should have some questions in mind that you want to ask for your informational interviews and there are five types of questions that you should be focused on the first one is all about preparation okay so how did they prepare for the job that they currently have how do they actually get the job that they have what did the onboarding process look like what are the application process look like learn as much as you can um in this realm because this is where you were at currently right you're going to the job search process you they might tell you look you need to know somebody on the inside to get a job here but make sure you also upload a resume because that formality is taken very seriously and if you don't the hiring manager will be turned off by it right that kind of information is very valuable maybe you can find out whether or not they like a separate sheet of publication submitted or whether they don't want any publication submitted to the hiring manager this is these are the insights you should be looking for and pertaining to these preparation question current fit okay so what are their current responsibilities where do they currently fit in the company what are they currently doing in the company those kind of questions are really important because as job candidates sometimes you can be trying to fit yourself into a position when you also need to be assessing that position whether or not that position fits to you okay so asking these questions is very powerful and it shows that you're not just going to take any job right it shows that you're evaluating the position whether or not that position is right for you the third future fit okay so what is the career trajectory look like the person you're talking to usually they'll love to talk about this right because it's on their mind they want to know when their next promotion is they want to know where their career is going so you need to ask them you know okay you're here now what is the trajectory look like where have other project managers gone after that initial position where other research scientists gone right where have other people in this position gone after one of those job titles look like where you plan on going next you know both vertically and laterally can you cross department at this company can you go from a regulatory affairs position to a medical science liaison position all right these these kind of questions are under this future fit umbrella company fit right what is the company culture link as we talked about your fit with the current position but what is your fit in the company you really need to ask company culture question this will show that you understand the importance of the overall team the overall framework of the company you can ask questions like processes right do people call each other in the office or do they use instant messenger do they use email to talk that is a type of culture question you can ask you can ask you know is it okay to show up when you want or is everybody pretty strict most people get there early in the morning you know what's the normal attitude with this how many meetings do you have what does you know what is your typical week look like make sure that you're asking culture questions then finally lifestyle questions most people know to ask but you're going to want to ask how often do you have to travel no matter what the position is there might be some travel there you know even if it's just to the annual conference that that company has the annual sales conference the annual company conference you want to ask you know what are the hours look like are people expected to just work eight hours and then pack it up and go home or for this particular position are you expected to work 12 hours 13 hours there's a lot of people who consider certain job titles like management consultant or MSL until they realize they have to travel seven days a week as an MSL or they have to work you know four weeks of time 18-hour days as a management consultant so make sure you're asking about the lifestyle and letting them again take that conversation to where they take it that's where you'll get your best insights so again make sure you're setting up informational interviews more than anything else these will lead to job referrals which more than anything else lead to actual job offers just make sure you're not making these three big mistakes and make sure if you're asking these questions if you want to know how to reach out to somebody for an informational interview if you want it broken down if you want to get some of our templates we've written these out for you and we've put them into a new ebook which you can get at phd's get hired calm so go to phd's get hired calm now you can get 40 networking scripts there's a whole section of scripts on how to reach out to people for informational interviews this takes us to the end of this live training we'll see you next week for another live training thank you you

Channel: Cheeky Scientist

Views: 42,238

Keywords: cheeky scientist, cheeky scientist association, phd jobs, industry career transitions, informational interviews, info interviews, interviewing techniques, STEM jobs, postdoc jobs, industry jobs for scientists, phd career transitions

Id: ZifvsYPpqH8

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2017