Is it okay to ask for a job in an informational interview?

No. If you ask for a job, the conversation turns into a screening, and the other person feels misled. Ask what you came to ask. If the person offers to pass on your CV or tells you about an opening, accept with thanks, but let it come from them.

How do I find people for informational interviews?

Start with people you know slightly rather than strangers: alumni from your course or university, former colleagues, friends of family, lecturers' contacts, people you met at events. Your mentor can often suggest one name. Each conversation usually leads to the next, because a good last question is who else you should talk to.

How long should an informational interview be?

Ask for 20 or 30 minutes and keep to it. Watch the time, and when it is up, offer to stop. If the other person wants to keep going, that is their choice. Respecting the time you asked for is the simplest way to make people glad they said yes.

What if nobody replies to my request?

Silence is common and usually means the person is busy, not that they refused. Send one short, polite follow-up after a week or so, then move on to the next name. Keep a simple list of who you asked and when, so you follow up once and do not chase.

Informational Interviews: Learn About a Career From People in It

Q: What is an informational interview?

A short conversation, usually 20 to 30 minutes, in which you ask someone about their work: what they do, how they got into it, and what they would advise someone in your position. You are asking for information and advice, not for a job, and that is what makes people willing to say yes.

An informational interview is a short conversation, usually 20 to 30 minutes, with someone who works in a job or field you are considering.

You ask what the work is really like, how they got into it, and what they would advise someone in your position.

You are asking for information and advice, never for a job.

That rule makes people more willing to say yes, and it makes the conversation useful to you.

This guide is for anyone trying to understand a career from the inside:

university students choosing a direction
recent graduates in a first job that does not fit
people changing field

It covers why these conversations work, how to find people and ask them, and what to ask.

It also covers how to follow up, three worked examples, and how to use all of this with a mentor.

What is an informational interview, and what is it not?

The term was popularized by Richard Bolles in his career book What Color Is Your Parachute?.

The book promotes a job search built on conversations with people rather than on job ads alone.

It is a practice framework rather than a research finding, and it suits both sides.

You learn something you cannot find online, and the other person is asked about the subject they know best.

It is useful to be clear about what it is not:

Not a job interview. Nobody is assessing you for a role, and you are not presenting yourself as a candidate. You are the one asking the questions.
Not a favor you are collecting. If the conversation leads to an introduction or a tip about an opening, good. But if you go in looking for that, it shows, and the conversation gets worse.
Not a lecture. You are not there to hear a career history from start to finish. You are there to ask specific questions that help you decide something.

Why do conversations with acquaintances work so well?

Two ideas from career research explain why a handful of conversations can change what you know and what happens next.

The first comes from sociologist Mark Granovetter’s paper The strength of weak ties.

He showed that acquaintances, people we see only occasionally, often carry information our close friends do not.

That is because they move in different circles.

Many of the job changers he studied had heard about their jobs through such contacts.

Your close friends mostly know what you already know.

An alumna two years into a role you are curious about knows things nobody in your current circle can tell you.

The second comes from Kathleen Mitchell, Al Levin and John Krumboltz, who described planned happenstance:

unplanned events are inevitable in a career and can be useful
people can act in ways that make beneficial chance events more likely

Asking people about their work is one of the most direct of those actions.

A conversation you planned to learn about one role often turns up:

a role you had never heard of
a project that needs help
the name of someone else worth meeting

Neither idea promises a job.

Both suggest that conversations widen what you know and who knows about you.

Who should you ask?

Start with people you have some connection to, however slight.

A request that begins “We were both on the same course” or “Your colleague suggested I write to you” is easier to answer.

One sent cold is harder to answer.

Good places to look:

Alumni of your university or course. Many universities run alumni networks or mentoring programs for exactly this reason.
People you have worked with, including in part-time jobs and internships, and the people they know.
Lecturers and tutors, who often know graduates working in the field.
Friends of family, as long as you treat the conversation as seriously as one with a stranger.
People you met at events, meetups, competitions or talks.
Your mentor, if you have one. One introduction from a mentor can open a second and a third.

Aim for variety.

Two people in the same role at the same company will tell you similar things.

Someone in their first year and someone ten years in will tell you very different things.

Both views are useful.

How do you ask for an informational interview?

Keep the request short, specific and easy to say yes to.

Explain who you are and why you are writing to this particular person.

Say what you would like to learn and how much time you are asking for.

Offer to fit around their schedule.

A message you can adapt:

Hello Ms. Rivera,

I am in the final year of a business degree at the same university you graduated from, and I am trying to decide between marketing and product roles. I saw that you moved from marketing into product management last year, and I would be grateful for 20 minutes of your time to hear how you see the difference between the two. A call or video meeting at a time that suits you would be ideal.

Thank you for considering it.

A few things make requests like this work:

One clear reason for writing to them. “I saw that you moved from marketing into product” tells them why they, specifically, can help.
A small, bounded request. Twenty minutes is easy to give; “pick your brain” is not.
No attachments. Sending a CV with the request turns it into a job application.

If there is no reply after a week or so, send one short follow-up.

If there is still no answer, move on without taking it personally.

What should you ask?

Prepare five to eight questions and expect to use about half of them.

Pick questions whose answers you cannot find online. Some that work well:

What does a typical week look like for you? What did you actually do last Tuesday?
How did you get into this role? Is that still how people get in now?
What do you enjoy most about the work, and what wears you down?
What do people starting out in this field find hardest?
What do you look for, or what does your team look for, in someone joining at entry level?
What would you do now if you were in my position?
Is there anything I should be reading, following or attending?
Who else would you suggest I talk to?

The last question matters most.

It is how one conversation becomes three.

What happens in the conversation itself?

A simple shape for a 20 to 30 minute conversation:

First two minutes: thank them and say who you are in two sentences. Repeat what you hoped to learn.
The middle: your questions, in order of importance, with real follow-ups. If an answer surprises you, ask about it instead of moving to the next question on your list.
Last five minutes: ask who else you should talk to and check whether you may stay in touch. Stop on time.

Take a few notes, or write them up straight afterwards.

Details fade quickly, and the details are what make the conversation useful.

How do you follow up?

Send a thank-you message the same day or the next.

Mention one specific thing you learned, so it is clear you were listening.

If they suggested a name, ask whether they would be comfortable introducing you, or whether you may mention them when you write.

Then, a few weeks or months later, send a short update:

“You suggested I look at internships in product analytics. I applied to two, and I start one in June.”

People who help often never hear what happened next.

An update is the best thanks you can give.

It keeps the connection alive without asking for anything.

What does this look like in practice?

Three illustrative examples. The names are invented and the people are composites, not real cases.

A final-year student choosing between two fields.

Lina is studying economics and is torn between financial analysis and public policy.

She has never talked to anyone in either.

With her mentor she lists four people:

two alumni from her course, one in each field
a former lecturer now at a government agency
her mentor’s colleague in a bank

She writes to the alumni first.

The conversation with the policy analyst changes her thinking.

The work involves far more writing than she expected, which she enjoys.

She asks who else to talk to and gets the name of someone running a summer research program.

Her next step is an application, not a decision, and that is the right size of step.

A recent graduate in a first job that does not fit.

Daniel graduated a year ago and works in customer support at a software company.

He suspects he would prefer a role in quality assurance but does not know what it involves day to day.

His first informational interview is internal: a tester two teams away.

He asks what a typical week looks like and what skills the team expects.

He learns that the team values people who know the product from the customer’s side.

That is exactly what he has.

His follow-up is a request to sit in on the team’s planning meeting.

A professional moving into a new field.

Amara has worked in event management for six years and is considering a move into user research.

She knows nobody in the field.

She starts with a meetup, talks to two people, and asks each for a short call later.

In the calls she asks how others made a similar move and what they wish they had done first.

Both mention a small portfolio project.

Her next step is to run three interviews for a local nonprofit and write up what she found.

That gives her something concrete to discuss in the next conversations.

In each case, the person asked about the work rather than for a job.

Each came away with a specific next step, and used the last question to find the next person.

How do you use this with your mentor?

A mentor working in your field is a good partner for informational interviews.

They can help with each stage without doing the work for you.

Before: decide together which questions you most need answered. Your mentor can often tell you which roles or people would show you a different side of the field. Bring your list to the meeting, as described in how to prepare for a mentoring meeting.
The request: draft your message and ask your mentor to read it. They will know whether the tone suits their field.
One introduction: ask whether there is one person they would be comfortable introducing you to. One is generous. Find the others yourself; that is a skill worth building.
After: bring your notes to the next meeting and talk through what surprised you. Conversations are most useful when someone helps you make sense of them.
The goal: if your mentoring goal is about choosing a direction, a number of conversations makes a useful milestone. The guide on setting goals with your mentor shows how to write one.

If you do not have a mentor yet, how to find a mentor covers where to look.

Many of the questions to ask a mentor work just as well in an informational interview.

Sources

Bolles, R. N. What Color Is Your Parachute? Ten Speed Press (annual editions since 1972). Practice framework.
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380. https://doi.org/10.1086/225469
Mitchell, K. E., Levin, A. S., & Krumboltz, J. D. (1999). Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77(2), 115-124. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02431.x