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Career Share
​career tools | quick learn series
Topic 001: Informational Interview Questions

​Informational interview questions can offer personalized, candid insight into the working world. In essence, it allows you to put the spotlight on the professional and is an incredibly low-pressure way to create connections while turning the table on the traditional job interviewing process. Keep in mind the outcomes of informational interviews are completely different from traditional job interviews. When you walk away, you will have established contact with someone invested in your growth as you explore careers and consider job opportunities.  Maintain professionalism and remember to follow-up with a thank you for their time.

Here are a few thought-starters for informative, conversation building questions that will help you obtain nuggets of wisdom to aid your career exploration or progression story.
 
  1. If you had to summarize your role in terms easy enough for a 3rd grader to understand what it is that you do, what would you say?
  2. What do you enjoy the most about your work?
  3. What proves to be the most challenging and how do you cope with that?
  4. Tell me about your journey to this position.
  5. What are your plans for the next step in your career?
  6. How important are professional associations/affiliations to this role? Which are you involved with?
  7. What skills are most important to your work?
  8. How do you keep up to date on the latest skills for this type of work?
  9. Have you seen a lot of change in your industry in the past 5 years? How has your role changed because of this?
  10. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to the younger version of yourself with regards to the position that you hold today?
  11. Are you able to maintain a good work/life balance with your work schedule?
  12. What are some of the activities you enjoy to de-stress?
  13. Does this job typically require that you work 40 hours a week, or more or less?
  14. Do you have an opportunity to work with other departments on projects? If so, what strengths do you bring to these cross-functional projects?
  15. Imagine that you were invited to give a motivational commencement address to a room full of graduating seniors who would all work in your role. What would be the title of your address?
 
Contact us to learn how you can put these questions to practice in our programs!
Topic 002: Personal Learning Network
Watch the video and download our companion worksheet.
My Skills My Future
Explore occupations with similar skills to your current or past job with this quick tool
Career Cluster Match
Learn about clusters of careers / occupations. (Helpful tip: the first page initially loads slowly, but after it's populated, it moves quickly.)