In one line: Ask someone who knows a field, a function or a company for a short conversation to learn from them, not to ask for a job. Prepare, listen, and follow up.
Core idea
An informational interview is a short, structured conversation in which you are the learner. It is one of the most reliable ways for an engineer to understand parts of their own organization they never see, and to build relationships across it. The course uses it repeatedly:
- the 30-second pitch is designed to open one
- the service module sends you to interview someone in customer or field service
- the most ambitious version is meeting a senior leader (see Bagging the Elephant)
How it works
- Choose the person and the purpose. What do you want to understand? Who is best placed to explain it?
- Ask with a specific, small request. Open with a short Elevator Pitch: who you are, how you found them, what you’d like to learn, and how much time you’re asking for. Twenty to thirty minutes is typical.
- Prepare. Research their background and their organization. Write five to eight open questions, grouped by theme. For the service interview, for example:
- structure: service strategy, reporting line, cost or profit center
- metrics: how quality is measured, how service is priced
- the human side: handling difficult customers, what makes a good field representative
- During the conversation, listen far more than you talk, follow the interesting threads, and respect the time limit.
- Close by asking who else you should speak with, and whether you can help them in any way.
- Follow up with a thank-you within a day, and later a note on what you did with their advice.
In practice
The questions that work best invite stories: How did you get into this role? What surprised you? What do you wish engineers understood about your work? A good informational interview often teaches you more about how the company really works than months of email. It also leaves the other person with a favorable first impression of you.
Questions to ask yourself
- Which function in my organization do I understand least, and who could explain it to me?
- Am I asking open questions that invite stories, or closed questions that invite one-word answers?
- Did I follow up on the last conversation like this I had?
Connections
- Part of: Networking. Opened by: Elevator Pitch. The senior version: Bagging the Elephant.
- Applied: Service Strategy, Identifying Customer Needs. The art of questions: Socratic Method.
- Capabilities exercised: Inquiry, Interpersonal Skills, Initiative.
Sources
- Course networking and service-interview assignments; no public source.