Shame on You, Informational Interviewer!
I know I’m quite the preacher about informational interviews (if you ever want to know about the entry-level public relations scene in the Washington, DC area, e-mail me and we’ll do lunch), but the fact is they can have a tremendous impact on your job (or internship) search. But you know what bothers me? There are people out there who agree to meet with eager young professionals without taking the situation seriously.
I was particularly disheartened by this e-mail I received recently (edited to remove organization names):
As you know, I’ve taken your advice to heart with the informational interviews, they really do go a long way. I spent my winter break in informational interviews, even travelled to Houston to meet with COMPANY A’s Texas office (I have family in the area). But, despite a dozen of these interviews, COMPANY B was by far, very far, the BEST one and I don’t think it will be topped. I had reached out to NAME, VP of HR at the firm, in the summer with plans to meet after my internship was over, but I never had time since my internship was extended until my last day in DC before heading back to school. I reached out again and luckily he was able to meet with me last Wednesday at 1:30PM. I got up around 4AM, packed my suit and coat and drove into Manhattan that day.
I figured it would be like the rest, a rather dull 15 minute session feeling like I was wasting someone’s time. But, I spent more than an hour-and-a-half with NAME, the CEO’s wife who is in charge of hiring the junior-level professionals. She was very engaging and seemed interested in me, we really shot the breeze about a lot of things, like teaching and some politics! Luckily, we were eye-to-eye on the politics. Most of the time with other firms I had asked them questions one by one, but they seemed to treat this as any other interview, asking about strengths, weaknesses, what practice groups I would be most interested in, etc. I could tell they are very proactive in their recruitment efforts. She had a lot of nice things to say about my work at school and I felt very welcome in the office in general. I also met with NAME briefly, and we broke down my internship and discussed why I might not want to go back despite having done very well. I explained I just didn’t appreciate the culture essentially, most people seem to hate working there even though I like it for the most part. The people were kind of miserable. NAME suggested people love working at COMPANY B which is apparent because they won the Best Places to Work award by Holmes Report, and many other awards. The office is beautiful, very group-centric, a lot of natural light, great location, nice layout, the whole deal.
I am pretty sure that was my last informational interview, I think anyone else would be disappointing at this point having met with so many people. I was encouraged to keep in touch and was asked to send in writing samples, which I did, so it sounds promising! If I ever had an offer I would accept in a heartbeat, so all focus right now is on COMPANY B. NAME says hes very willing to accomodate people interested in the firm, most of the time I feel like I’m intruding at other firms despite willingness to travel halfway across the country to learn about them and their particular office!
Now, most of this e-mail is extremely positive for the individual writing me, and it’s definitely good to focus your efforts on particular companies versus “spraying and praying.” However, what he probably doesn’t realize is the information interview he liked so much was not conducted in any special manner that would make it a “best practices” case. What he described is supposed to be the norm!
Hiring managers: I’m not saying you need to accept every informational interview request, but when you do, take it as seriously as the candidate! Otherwise, you’re doing your organization, industry and the candidate a huge disservice.
People complain (myself included) that young professionals do not know how to search for jobs. So, when a candidate actually goes about things the right way, I think it’s imperative we hold up our end of the deal.
What have your experiences — as either the candidate or hiring manager — been with informational interviews? What advice do you have for others?
