An Occupational Information Interview * (often referred to as an Informational Interview or an Information Interview) is a meeting that students request with a career professional to seek career advice and industry information rather than a job. As a college student, you may want to request an Occupational Information Interview to help you choose a career path or to learn how to be successful in your chosen career industry. During an Occupational Information Interview, you will be asking the majority of the questions. Prepare a number of questions to bring with you to ensure you leave with the information you want to know.
When selecting questions, begin with those you most want to be answered. This is because it is possible that you may not get to all of your questions during the interview. You may run out of time before you get to the last questions on your list or the professional might be called away early due to a work-related emergency.
Use the list of questions below to serve as a guide as you develop your list of questions to ask during the interview. While you can select among these questions, you will get the most out of the interview if you also create questions about what you want to know most. Specific questions you ask will also depend on your level of career decidedness, your career field of interest and the position of the professional you are interviewing.
Occupational Information Interview Questions:
- How did you decide on your career path?
- What work and educational experiences lead you to your current position?
- What is the required or recommended educational level for your career field?
- Are there any required or helpful certifications for this career field?
- How well did your college education prepare you for your career field?
- Do your primary activities change at different times in the year? If so, how?
- What types of technology do you use at work?
- Please describe a typical day for you at work?
- Please describe your work environment.
- What are your job responsibilities?
- What are the most important skills to be successful in your career?
- What are the hours you typically work? How often do you work on the weekends? How often do you have to stay late at work?
- Do you have any flexibility with the hours that you work?
- What are the rewards of this job? What satisfies you the most at work?
- Please describe the best day you ever had at work?
- What do you consider to be the most difficult aspect of your job?
- What kinds of frustrations do you experience at work?
- What do you find most satisfying about your career?
- What is the most stressful part of your job?
- What are other careers that are related to yours?
- What advice do you have for students interested in entering this career field?
*Both "Information Interview" and "Informational Interview" are common terms for the type of interview described in this article. The author chose to use "Occupational Information Interview" because she believed it was more descriptive and potentially less confusing than the more common terms.
