How to use informational interviews in your career exploration
Right now I’m seeing a lot of people looking to make a career move of some sort - maybe they are thinking about a business, a move to self-employment or a change of industry/role.
And with that comes a load more questions and decisions. If you’re going down the business route it’s on who will you serve, what’s your focus and what is your concept. If it’s a career change it could be deciding on the industry, the role or even the size of the company (the latter is often much more important than people realise).
The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter. Malcolm Gladwell
All these choices are overwhelming enough to stop someone from taking action and move forward. Google is packed with information but it can lead to a tsunami of knowledge rather than the deeper understanding and clarity needed to make a decision.
I know for me, one of my biggest self-saboteurs of moving forward at a few points in my oh-so-squiggly career has been indecision, and I know it can be a really frustrating and difficult place to sit. So what to do?
Get out there and talk to new people
At the back end of 2018 and into 2019 I found myself consulting, specifically doing marketing support in one way or another - lead generation, copywriting and marketing automation strategy. With my previous employer as my main client plus some others, I found myself earning a good amount per month and being pretty successful as a freelancer (without a website or any structured marketing).
But I could feel something wasn’t quite right within me. I could see if I put my mind to it, I could probably grow a small little marketing agency and expand as a business through hiring in support when I got busy enough to need it. But I didn’t feel a huge enthusiasm or motivation for it, which as someone quite driven I found unnerving. Writing a blog like this about lead generation made me want to clean my sock draw!!
So I decided on an informational interview project as inspired by Designing Your Life which I mapped out using my quarterly and weekly goal system.
I decided on the strategy to reach out and speak to five small marketing agency owners along with five people in the employee engagement/people development space and just have an informal chat about their work and how they find it. What is their day to day really like, what are the non-so-shiny bits they don’t show on social media?
I planned some questions before the interview to ensure I felt prepared and confident, but I also held them lightly allowing my intuition and natural curiosity to ask things based on the flow of the conversation.
Connection, clarity and calm
I remember the first one of these interviews I went into London and met a great guy for coffee. It boosted my mindset for a number of reasons.
One, I connected in person with another human which after working at home solo a lot, was an insight into where I had certain needs.
Two, I felt calm that I was at last taking pro-active action towards my feeling of unease.
Three, we built a great relationship and because of this, I could ask the deeper questions that provided great clarity.
Questions like where do you feel the fulfillment in this work for you? Where do you really want to go? What do you love about it? What do you wish you’d know before you started? What are the challenges?
It’s important to remember an honest, vulnerable and open person will give you so much insight into something whereas someone who is possibly feeling a bit insecure may play up to sharing how great everything is as an ego protection. In this case, I find it’s helpful to show some vulnerability yourself and simply build more of a relationship and deepen the level of trust.
How do you feel straight away afterward?
Our gut can often be helpful to listen to in the moment.
One thing you can do to get more insight around yourself after these discussions - because how you feel is just as important as the information you gather - is to bring attention to what is going on with you. So check in with your body, your thoughts and what your initial feelings are.
A couple of my meetings I felt a real bolt of calm and clarity. The gathering of evidence that supported perhaps what my gut was trying to tell me - I’m not sure that option is really aligning with you right now.
Over a few weeks, I completed all of the interviews then pieced up all the information I’d gathered together so I could make the resonant choice.
The choice being my desire to move more into coaching, people development, L&D, employee engagement and wellbeing via a form of employment initially. The place where my heart was calling me.
And this let go of quite a lucrative super flexible lifestyle and seek out opportunities (employed or self-employed) in the space and industry I wanted to move towards the long term.
People are willing to help and connect
If done well, informational interviews can build up your network, be enjoyable and be a nice experience for the person you reach out to. They also provide you an exercise to step out of your comfort zone where you can embrace some bravery in who you reach out to. I was lucky enough to speak to an extremely well regarded and strong thought leader in the leadership development space who inspired me immensely with her generosity and support.
Just remember to offer the same to others when they come to you!
So why not start an informational interview project today. If you’re feeling stuck on who to reach out to or in structuring the process, feel free to drop me an e-mail and I’ll be able to suggest half a dozen for your industry/interest area!