Espresso Insight

An informational interview serves 2 purposes:

1. To gather information.
2. More importantly, to grow your network.

What is an informational interview?

An informational interview isn’t really an interview at all — its simply a conversation.

Of course, it can be a starting point that leads to a potential job opportunity, but at the level of the initial conversation, it should treated as nothing more than an opportunity to have a conversation and learn something new.

In my experience, calls will typically be less than 30 minutes, and potentially as short as 15 minutes.

If you want to setup informational interviews, do this: call your friends and people you know, attend in person networking events / meetups, develop as many high quality relationships as possible.

How to prepare for an informational interview:

Before your conversation, make sure to do your research on the company and job.

Understand as much as you can from publicly available websites, job postings, blogs, and press releases. That way, you can avoid wasting time asking questions about something you could easily find via a Google search.

The conversation is an opportunity to learn things from someone who currently works at the company you’d like to join, and is ideally currently doing the job that you want.

Come prepared, and be genuinely curious. You can learn things from people about their experiences and their day to day lives, which you wouldn’t otherwise be able to learn.

Types of questions to ask during an informational interview:

Start off each conversation by thanking the person for their time.

After doing your research, asking unique and specific questions is your opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the company / role, the experience you have, and show case the research you have done.

Ask questions that are open-ended, not overly personal, and give the opportunity for the person to be as general or specific as they feel comfortable.

With each question you ask, you have the opportunity to preface the question with context about what you’ve done in the past and your experiences, coming from a place of curiosity and demonstrating what you’ve done with trying to understand the world of the future job you hope to get.

Sample questions to ask for sales roles:

1. How’s the fiscal year going?
2. Territory / Quota structure? Geographic or Verticalized? Net new vs. expansion targets?
3. How is success measured?
4. Would you be willing to share any win stories from a customer you helped or a deal you closed?
5. Are there any company-wide initiatives that someone interviewing for a sales role here should be aware of?
6. I would really like to join ___ company in ___ role. How would you recommend I prepare for a possible job interview? What do hiring managers look for?

Beyond the above list, try your best to ask a few questions specific to things you learn during your preparatory research.