Informational Interviews

In addition to online career resources, informational interviews are another way to gather information about a career.

Informational interviews are meetings where you are the interviewer, and the person with whom you are meeting has information that you want—for example, about a specific job, organization, or industry. Informational interviews are a type of networking, but since the primary aim is to uncover information, we are including informational interviewing in the research unit.

Many job seekers treat informational interviews like an interrogation, with a long list of questions to extract information from the interviewee. We will take a more sophisticated approach to informational interviews. These interviews occur after some research is already completed, so the interview is not simply a series of questions to gain more information but rather a way to verify, refine, and test the information already researched. It is a two-way conversation, and you will be giving as well as receiving information.

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Informational Interviews Are Two-Way Exchanges of Information

Most job seekers see informational interviews as a shortcut to research. Why not find someone who does the job, works at the organization, or works in the industry so they can give you a summary of the job, organization, or industry, instead of plowing through secondary data yourself? There are several reasons it is a bad idea to jump right to informational interviews
without conducting your own research first:

• It’s harder to land good informational interviews without having done some research first. Potential interview targets are going to think it is not worth their time if you are just there to take information from them, rather than having an interesting two-way exchange.
• Just because someone does the job or is part of an organization or industry does not mean that they have an exhaustive command of the information for that job, organization, or industry. You will not get an objective, comprehensive view of your target just by talking to a few people. Unless your interview target is skilled at tailoring advice across a range of backgrounds, what they will share is based on their specific experience, skills, and personality. It may not be relevant to you or your situation.
• You get just the basic information because you do not know enough to ask probing questions or to confirm or refine the information you gather beforehand. It is a wasted opportunity for obtaining more nuanced information.
• You come across as knowing nothing about the job, organization, or industry. You wasted an opportunity to demonstrate your interest and knowledge, and therefore market yourself as a possible person to work in that job, organization, or industry.

The best informational interviews are two-way exchanges of information, more like a conversation than an interrogation. You are offering the information you have collected via your research and the interviewee is adding his or her thoughts and ideas. You come across not as the novice looking for a favor and more as a colleague brainstorming ideas. People are busy and do not always take the time to read business news, attend trade association meetings, or do the in-depth research you will be doing. They will appreciate you bringing to them the latest news. By being well researched and prepared, you do not have to feel like you are imposing on someone when asking for an informational interview. You will be giving back as well, in terms of information on breaking news, trends, or innovations.

Sample Informational Interview Questions

You want to get to know your interviewee by asking questions such as the following:

• How did you get involved in this job, organization, or industry?
• What do you like most about it? What has been most rewarding?
• What is most challenging? Was there anything that surprised you?
• What is a typical day, week, or month like?
• What skills are most critical to have, develop, and maintain to be successful?
• What personality types are most successful in this job, organization or industry?
• What do you know now that you wished you knew when you started?

Interest in their specific background establishes rapport because it shows you care about them specifically. It also gives you a foundation for questions to ask later because you know more about their experience. You want to get broader information about the industry, so you ask questions that reflect your research:

• According to my research, the top competitors are [name the competitors]. Am I missing anyone you think is significant? Is there a new player I should know about?
• According to my research, [name a trend, challenge, or innovation] is a major trend, challenge, or innovation. Is this affecting your job or organization? Is this overestimated in the media? Are there are other trends, challenges, or innovations I should be concerned about?

This is why research prior to the informational interview is so critical. You use your research findings as a springboard for conversation. You are not relying on the interviewee to think of everything and be the sole source of information. You are offering ideas, too. Informational interviews also enable you to dive deeper into what you previously researched.

Pick several research findings to test, and choose what to ask based on what level and type of experience your interviewee has. If your interviewee is very experienced and senior, you can ask broad strategy questions. If your interviewee is focused on a very specific area, say technology, focus on technology-related issues in the discussion.

You also want to get career-related information, such as salary and environment, and a candid sense of your chances in this job, organization, or industry:

• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to make [name salary range] and experience [name lifestyle, travel, or work culture]. Is that accurate? Are there any nuances to this that are not publicized in general media?
• According to my research, the typical career trajectory is [name different titles you have seen for the job]. Is this accurate? Does this differ by company?
• How would you describe the culture of your organization? Does this vary greatly for companies in the industry?
• According to my research, it is customary for people in this job to have [name skills and experiences]. Is my background of [summarize your skills and experience] competitive? If you knew of an opening for this type of job, would you consider me or refer me?
• What about my background is most relevant to this job? What would I need to do to improve my chances?

These questions enable you to get information on the touchy issues of compensation and lifestyle, as well as candid feedback on your hiring prospects. By offering ideas, you take the pressure off the interviewee to reveal sensitive information. Instead, you give them something to react to. People will also appreciate that you have done some salary research, as they might not have time to see what is happening in the market, and they will want to reciprocate by sharing something they know.

Asking about the competitiveness of your skills and experience is not the same as asking for a specific job. You should never ask for a job in an informational interview. It is disingenuous because you asked for a meeting to focus on gathering information, not to ask for a job.

Be Polite: Common Rules of Etiquette Apply

Common rules of etiquette apply in the protocols of informational interviews. When asking for the interview, you can approach your interviewee by phone, mail, or email. An email has the most advantages and fewest disadvantages and should work for most job seekers. If you are more confident in your phone approach or mail campaign, then you may want to try that as well. You might also tailor your approach to the recipient. If you get referred to someone and they tell you to call them, then call them, even if you would prefer to email.

You want to approach your interviewee based on what their preference is. The content of your approach, whether by phone, mail, or email, should include who you are and why you are making contact. If someone refers you, mention that right away. Regarding who you are, make your introduction compelling but brief. An elegant way to share your resume is to put your online profile hyperlink in your email signature. This way, the interviewee can easily get more information about you without having to search, but it is shared in one line rather than a paragraph or more of detail. This is a key advantage of an email approach.

Common etiquette applies during and after the informational interview as well. Be on time, and do not take too much time. Ask for fifteen to thirty minutes, be mindful of the time, and offer to end the interview right after the agreed amount of time. Only stay longer if invited. Send a thank-you note—email is fastest, handwritten by mail is a classy addition, but definitely send at least an e-mail so you know it arrives promptly.

Changes in the Workplace – The Gig economy & Side Hustles

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, people have been looking at new ways of working that will not leave them so exposed to losing their income. Self-employment is not a new concept — tradespeople and creatives are old hands at obtaining work from various sources — but the emergence of centralized digital platforms selling services or products has led to the explosive growth of the gig economy. Workers are turning away from a 9 to 5 job in favor of independent work where there is no long-term relationship between buyer and seller.

To understand the scale and motivations of the growing independent workforce, the McKinsey Global Institute conducted a survey involving 8,000 workers across the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden, France, and Spain. McKinsey finds that independent work is becoming more mainstream with digital platforms creating large marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers who can communicate in real-time. McKinsey’s analysis of their survey data (2016) and existing data found 20 to 30 percent of the workforce across the US and EU-15 countries were involved in independent work. Buyers can search with keywords or scroll through seller listings to find a service or product to suit them.

Buyers can be instantly connected to an innovative solution. Uber, Lyft, and Deliveroo offer carsharing and delivery services, Airbnb opens up homes for rental, and Etsy lets creatives sell their creations. For people looking for local services in the home or office, TaskRabbit and Airtasker make light work of everyday tasks. For workers who can deliver via the internet, digital platforms have opened up global markets, creating a surge in home workers offering services to startups or businesses needing a more flexible workforce or specialized skills for one-off projects. On platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and People Per Hour, freelancers provide creative services that include website design, content creation, coding, and consultancy. Even legal services are being transformed through platforms such as Lawyers on Demand and Lawpath, making the legal process of setting up a business easier and cheaper.

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Why are more people choosing to join the gig economy?

Flexible working.

Independent work offers flexibility to students funding tertiary education, to parents caring for young children, and to Millennials and Gen Y looking to swap a corporate career for a portfolio career. Freelancing also offers a top-up income for people already in parttime or full-time jobs. Greater control Freelancers control their work and pricing. They may also choose who they work with to match their skills, experience, interests, and values. This gives greater rewards, not limited to or even necessarily financially but in terms of job satisfaction.

Workplace freedom.

Freelancers have greater choice over where they work. This flexibility helps provide an improved work-life balance, especially relevant in the U.S. where employees receive only two weeks’ annual leave and the corporate culture can involve long hours in the office to show commitment. This misguided culture breeds chronic stress with the potential for lower productivity, ill health, and sickness-related absence.

Protection from prejudice and politics.

Home-based working environments give freelancers protection from office workplaces that can be toxic, especially in large corporations with a vertical hierarchy and one-way communication rather than an open, collaborative culture. Promotion can be influenced by favoritism in the form of the halo effect or by prejudice based on gender, sexuality, race, or disability.

Motivation from direct responsibility.

In traditional workplaces, people can feel removed from the end-user, which impacts job satisfaction. Freelancers deal directly with clients and on team projects, they collaborate with colleagues on an equal footing. Knowing that the outcome relates directly to their performance, independent workers can be more motivated to produce high-quality work.

McKinsey’s survey found that workers who are choosing freelance work as their primary income reported higher levels of satisfaction than workers choosing traditional jobs. But while there are myriad benefits to be gained from the growing gig economy, the freelance marketplace is not without its problems.

What are the challenges of independent working and the drawbacks of centralized platforms?

Gig workers face issues with income security, employment rights, and credit availability that can deter people from making the switch from permanent employment.

Financial Insecurity
Self-employed workers have traditionally charged a higher rate to offset the lack of paid leave, paid sickness absence, pension contributions, and training provided by permanent employers, as well as to cover non-chargeable time. But some clients take a while to pay up or they do not pay up at all and legal proceedings are costly. Digital platforms provide a more secure option because the platform holds the buyer’s payment in escrow until the seller completes the work satisfactorily, but it can take can take two weeks for a buyer’s payment to be made available to the seller. If there is a dispute, sellers may not get paid. With a low-cost, low-skill entry, the pool of workers competing for gigs on these platforms has swelled, causing a race to the bottom on pricing with workers often accepting below minimum wage rates. Fiverr now has a FiverrPro section that differentiates sellers who provide a professional service and charge a higher fee. Either way, earnings are unpredictable with gaps between gigs making it difficult to meet living costs. Self-employed workers may also be denied access to financial products, such as mortgages, personal loans, and personal pensions.

Data security
Centralized digital platforms are vulnerable to data breaches and cyber-attacks that could make order history, client communications, and outstanding work and payments unavailable.

Lack of transparency 
Centralized digital platforms focus on maximizing short-term profit for the platform. While feedback from users is invited on some platforms, policy and process modifications are underpinned by corporate interests. For example, sellers are not given a clear indication of how to rank well in the search algorithm and seller status levels can be affected by order cancellation frequency (even if it is mutually agreed) and review ratings (fair or not).

High fees
Buyers and sellers contribute significantly to centralized freelancing platform success, yet some platforms charge sellers up to 20 percent in fees. While freelancers have a showroom for their business complete with user profile, gig, and administrative facilities, the lack of transparency and excessive control on these platforms is problematic.

Social isolation
Freelance working can be a lonely business with associated risks for mental health. Communication and relationships between buyers and sellers are often short-term and there is no workplace community.

Traditional employment platform
Glassdoor is not convinced by the gig economy takeover, saying that despite the millennial generation being identified as the group who will shape the way we work, only 10 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds and 9 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds believe the gig economy will become the “future of work”. By contrast, economist and author Linda Nazareth says the shift away from regular work is underway and governments, businesses, and individuals are not ready. “The transformation to a gig economy is happening at an astonishing speed in Canada. According to staffing company Randstad Canada, if you add up all the contingent workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and consultants, you are talking about 20 to 30 percent of the Canadian workforce being “nontraditional workers” already. That percentage is only going higher. Eighty-five percent of the companies surveyed by Randstad figure that they will increasingly move to an ‘agile workforce’ over the next few years.”

Similarly, Forbes reports an estimated 34 percent of the U.S. workforce worked independently in 2017 rather than as traditional 9 to 5 workers. By 2020, this could reach 43 percent. The Intuit 2020 Report on trends affecting consumers and small businesses around the world says that over 80 percent of large corporations are planning to substantially increase their flexible workforce.