What an informational interview is, and isn't
An informational interview is a conversation where you're seeking someone's perspective on their role, company, or industry, not asking them for a job. Treating it as a disguised job pitch is the fastest way to make the other person feel used, and it usually shows through in how the conversation goes. Go in genuinely curious about their experience, and let any opportunity discussion happen naturally if it comes up, rather than steering there yourself from the start.
The value of this format is that it lets you gather real, current information about a role or industry that you couldn't get from a job posting or a company website, while also building a relationship that might matter later even if this particular conversation doesn't lead anywhere immediate.
It's also a lower-stakes way to explore whether a field or role is genuinely right for you before you invest months into pivoting toward it. Hearing directly from someone doing the work, including the parts that don't make it into a polished job description, is often more useful than any amount of research done alone.
How to ask for the conversation
Be specific about time and topic so the person can say yes without much thought. 'Hi [Name], I'm exploring a move into [field/role] and came across your background in [specific area]. Would you be open to a 20 minute call so I could hear about your path and what the day to day is actually like? Happy to work around your schedule.'
Naming a short, specific time commitment (15 to 20 minutes) matters, it removes the ambiguity of an open-ended ask that could turn into an hour, and it signals that you respect their time from the very first message.
Questions that actually get useful answers
- What does a typical week look like in your role, and how has that changed over time?
- What skills or experience mattered most when you moved into this kind of work?
- What's something about this role or industry that isn't obvious from the outside?
- If you were starting over and trying to break into this field today, what would you do differently?
- Are there other people you'd suggest I talk to, given what I'm exploring?
- What does the company actually value when hiring for roles like yours, beyond what's listed in a typical job posting?
Avoid asking questions you could have answered by reading the company's website. Save the conversation for things only someone inside the role could tell you, since that's what makes the time worth their while and worth yours.
What to do after the call
Send a thank you message within a day, referencing something specific they said so it doesn't read as boilerplate. If they offered to introduce you to someone else, follow up on that within a week while the conversation is still fresh in their mind. And if the conversation naturally surfaced an opening or a reason to apply, it's fine to ask directly at that point, since the context has already been set.
Keep the relationship going afterward with an occasional update, especially if their advice ends up mattering to how your search goes. People who helped you are usually glad to hear the outcome, whether it worked out immediately or took a while.
Handling a decline gracefully
Not everyone will have time, and some people are simply not comfortable with informational interviews even when they mean no offense by declining. If someone says no or doesn't respond, thank them if they did reply, or simply move on if they didn't. Don't take it personally or read it as a reflection of your background, people's availability and comfort with these requests varies a lot and usually has nothing to do with you specifically.
Making the most of a short conversation
With only 15 to 20 minutes, prioritization matters. Have your two or three most important questions ready first, in case the conversation runs shorter than planned or drifts naturally in a direction you didn't expect. It's also worth leaving a couple of minutes at the end explicitly for 'is there anything I should have asked that I didn't', since this often surfaces the most useful insight of the entire call, precisely because it wasn't something you thought to ask yourself.
When and how to ask for a second conversation
Sometimes twenty minutes genuinely isn't enough, especially if the person turns out to have a background very closely aligned with what you're exploring. It's fine to ask directly toward the end of the call if they'd be open to a follow-up conversation sometime, framed around a specific next topic rather than an open-ended request to talk again. People are generally more receptive to a second conversation when the first one went well and the ask for round two is concrete about what it would cover.
Running several informational interviews as a coordinated effort
When you're exploring a genuinely new field or function, one informational interview rarely gives you the full picture, and it's worth deliberately running several with different people across different companies and seniority levels. Compare what you hear across conversations, since patterns that repeat across multiple people are far more reliable signals than any single person's opinion, while a single strong or negative reaction from one person might just reflect that individual's particular situation rather than the field as a whole.
Respecting everyone's time when running several of these calls
When coordinating multiple informational interviews in a short span, keep each request separate and personal rather than batching people together or reusing an identical message with zero customization. It's fine to reuse a general structure for efficiency, but each message should still reflect something specific about that person's background. Running several conversations in parallel is efficient for you, but every individual you contact should still feel like they're getting your full, genuine attention rather than being one of many identical requests sent out that week.