Acing the Informational Interview

Acing the Informational InterviewCongratulations...you’ve successfully

made your way “in” to an organization by being granted a phone or face-to-face consult with your contact. What

you do next matters….

866.755.9800 [email protected] 1

WARNING: An informational interview is NOT a job interview.

http://www.ittechexec.com/

http://www.ittechexec.com/

Here is what an informational interview is NOT…

• The time to ask for a job.

• The time to sell the other party on how wonderful you are.

• The time to beg. (Repeatedly asking for the other person to do something for you is begging, FYI.)

• The time to talk only about yourself (even if that is what it seems like the other person wants you to do).

• The time to pressure the other person into telling you everything that is wrong with his or her company.

• The time to criticize the company.

• The time to overpraise the company! (Don’t tell them that this organization holds the answers to all your prayers!)

• The time to walk away without any follow-up expectations in place. (Too many people end the interview and walk away just hoping the person will “keep them in mind”. It’s important to keep the engagement going.)


Here is what an informational interview IS…

• The time to solidify your introduction by actually speaking with the contact. (Now he or she will feel more connected to you.)

• The time to reinforce what you said in the introduction. (In other words, you are there to learn and gather information.)

• The time to listen to the types of “business-oriented” problems the company faces. (This will give you insight into how to approach the company either when applying for a job or when speaking with other contacts there.)

• The time to learn more about your contact and his or her progression with the company. (How did he or she get hired there?)

• The time to build in an expectation for follow up that will not be tedious or overwhelm your contact.


Basic preparation steps: Here’s a basic order for how the interview should proceed:• Start with some basic small talk to get a sense of whether he or she is open to

chatting or just all business. Enthusiasts actually might want to get right down to business as they are eager to help; Skeptics might want to chat a bit first. One or two small talk questions should help you determine which it is.

• Then move into Q&A using open-ended questions, such as follows:– What trends are most impacting your business now? or How has the

business changed most since you started with the company?– What's the best lesson you've learned on this job so far? of If you had to

attribute your success at XYC Company to one particular skill or trait, what would it be?

– If you were me, what would you be doing right now to break into this industry?

– What resources should I be sure to look into next? and/or What next steps would you recommend for someone in my situation?

– Have any projects or initiatives increased in importance recently?

• Finally, how you end the conversation is the most important: Thank the contact for their time and tell them they've given you a lot to consider and that it sounds like they work at a great organization. If it's ok, you'd like to take a few days to process the information, and if it seems like there may be a good mutual fit, ask if it is ok to reach back out to the contact to get recommendations on how best to proceed from here. Then be sure to follow up with a thank-you note the following day (and to follow through on what you said you were going to do).

Do some basic research on the company/contact to help prepare some questions but don’t overdo it:• Check out the latest news releases on

the company, especially in regard to new products/services.

• Consider the industry the company is in and what types of issues they might face as a result of that.

• Get some basic background through social media on your contact that you can casually introduce into your interview (just be careful not to let him or her feel like you “stalked” them online).


What you’re hoping to accomplish.

Ideally, you’d love for the contact to recommend you to someone else in the organization who either is a decision maker in your area or is closer to one.

BUT…it’s important you don’t push too much for that. The point of building rapport is to let them come to that on their own.

The Enthusiasts might get there right away. The Skeptics might take more convincing (unless they are eager to pass you off), and so you might have to wait until after a follow-up session or two before they become those “Believers.”

Networking does require finesse and patience. BUT…it does reward those who are willing to do those things. Most people quit when they aren’t received with open arms. Therefore, proactive networking and employer profiling doesn’t

“work” for them.


Job searching isn’t about 1 method; it’s about a diversified approach. Employer Profiling is meant to help build a pipeline you didn’t have before other

than just using job boards. Why not create as many pipelines as

you can?

To learn more about “Enthusiasts

” and “Skeptics”, see “The 3

Most Common Types of

Networkers”.

http://www.slideshare.net/StephenVanVreede/the-3-most-common-types-of-networkers

Remember: You are building professional contacts for not just this move but for the next one as well…

or at least you should be.So don’t drop the ball once you get the next gig, no matter how

you get it.

Position yourself now for the next move, and make all this hard work pay off.


Perhaps you can relate...

“I have to admit that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I had my resume done. I had a strong brand message in place. And I thought I had a plan for how I was going to conduct my job search: I was going to do what I had always done in the past.

I was going to call a few colleagues to get them ‘looking’ for me, respond to some job boards, and reach out to a few recruiters. So I did just that. And although I had some movement, it was very slow-going. Companies were definitely much slower to respond and progress the discussion than they had been in the past.

My colleagues were helpful and did put in a few good words for me, but frankly, there just weren’t enough of them out there and the timing just wasn’t right. At that point, I had to decide either to give up the search for now or switch tactics.

That’s when I heard about Employer Profiling. Although I was a ‘Skeptic’ myself, I was drawn to the idea of 1) proactively targeting companies I wanted to work for (many of which I didn’t even know existed) and 2) having a ‘job search agent’ who did the upfront work for me (I knew if I had to rely on my ‘free’ time that it would never happen).

Without a doubt, this was the push I needed. Before I knew it, I was building my LinkedIn network with valuable contacts, profiling companies for my search, and being introduced to contacts at those companies!

After launching me into this direction, although I still had to be diligent and follow through, I did succeed in meeting with a decision maker on two separate occasions at one of my target companies who eventually made me an offer…for a position that was never posted!

This approach was definitely hard work, but all along the way, I felt more in control of the process, more directed, and less a part of the masses. I still applied to job boards and talked to recruiters (and even had some interviews from that), but I never gave up on building those new relationships with people at these target companies.

And now I can even say that I have leveraged those relationships to help others in my network. I think I finally truly understand how networking should work.”

Meet Justine. Justine is a very busy Project Manager in the pharmaceutical industry. She also happens to be a busy mom of 3 and very active in her community.

Justine has always moved from job to job pretty easily until this time. Job boards and recruiters just aren’t coming through for her, and she knows she needs to build more professional contacts, but who has the time?

Plus, Justine wasn’t born yesterday. Although her current environment isn’t ideal, she doesn’t want to just jump ship for greener pastures. She wants to be careful about the next organization she works with.

But that’s easier said than done…or so it seems.


Silly me. I thought an MBA mixed with hard work was my ticket…

(A Note from Stephen Van Vreede, Co-Founder of ITtechExec/NoddlePlace)


When I first started my career, generally I didn’t know anyone who actually paid to have their resume (or résumé, for the purists among us) written, much less for “career services.”

Let's be real. It used to be pretty cut-and-dry. You put a basic 1-page (or maybe 2-page) resume (or résumé) together, worked a few connections or answered a few "classifieds," and felt pretty certain the right opportunity would come along. Then if you worked hard (got the right certs) and didn't burn too many bridges, you most likely had a pretty secure career path ahead of you perhaps even with the same company.

And at first, throughout most of the early part of my corporate life, that was generally how things went. I moved from internal position to internal position without the need to invest in resume or other career services, eventually landing a director-level role with a large GE Capital, multi-site inbound call center serving the logistics industry.

But then the job market began to change, my priorities shifted, and job security was, well, less secure.


So I decided to go back for my MBA and obtain some other credentials (sound familiar?), which cost me thousands and thousands (and thousands) of dollars (just ask my lovely bride who helped pay for them!). I even clawed my way through the Six Sigma process to become a Black Belt.

It was a great experience, but after two years of working full time and taking night classes, when I graduated, the job market wasn’t much better, competition for internal promotions was greater, and I wasn’t the only one with an MBA, a Black Belt, etc.

That’s when I was introduced to resume design and career services.


I came to recognize that the time and resources I had already spent on my career were worth protecting. The market was too uncertain and changing too rapidly for me to continue to go it alone.

At this point, I had already invested in someone to handle my retirement,another someone to do my taxes, and another someone to find me the right home. It wasn’t such a stretch to think that my career mattered as much, if not more, than these other things. After all, without it, then I couldn’t afford the retirement or the house (and yes even the taxes).

I began to see where resume/career services could play an integral part…


in not only helping people to secure jobs but also in building in protections to the careers we’ve all worked so hard to achieve.

Eventually, my wife, Sheree, and I began our own firm in 2001 called “No Stone Unturned”. Initially, we had a small office where we hosted seminars and workshops, wrote resumes, and served a cross section of professionals and backgrounds.

And although writing resumes and teaching seminars was fine, we wanted to do better. And we knew we could.

ITtechExec was launched…


Thanks to my background in IT/telecom management for the supply chain/logistics industry and to Sheree’s experience serving as an editor to the scientific/engineering community in the publishing world, we soon realized that we were best suited to serve the technical professionaltrying to maneuver through what by that point (2008) had become a complex and exhausting job market. (Let’s face it…it’s a bit of a zoo out there!)

Not only that, we noticed that other resume writers were avoiding technical clients, unsure of how best to position their specialized skills.

Therefore, it wasn’t long before we began to work exclusively with IT and technical or “STEM” clientele, professionals who have devoted themselves to some of the most innovative and rewarding fields in today’s industries, from engineering to healthcare IT to scientific exploration to big data and cloud services to project/program management.

That’s when ITtechExec was born…

Silly me. I thought we could just write resumes…


Then, before we knew it, unemployment skyrocketed and the tech market began waging its war for sophisticated tech talent.

And on top of all that, social media recruiting burst onto the scene, and the landscape became pretty messy, pretty fast. Soon, hiring folks were claiming they were no longer reading resumes (even though they continued to ask for them), and the job market became such a zoo that candidates found themselves focused on a document that everyone says they won't look at for more than 6 seconds but it better not have any typos in it!

That’s when we realized that we could no longer just write a resume and send our clients on their way. They needed better preparation and lasting protections. They needed strategies and tools that, well, worked.

We knew then that we had to become a full-service career advancement and protection firm, not just another resume-writing firm.

95% of technical leaders obsess over the resume even though they don't believe it has much value.


So we asked ourselves, if you know the market is a zoo, that resumes aren't likely to be read, and that obstacles like age or experience are more pronounced than ever, why would you (a) keep approaching it from the same angle over and over or (b) sit back and do nothing? Why wouldn't you instead focus on where the real value lies?

With tech professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4 years, consulting/contracting on the rise, and fierce competition for promotions, it's time to try something that is based on how the market is actually working now, not 10, 15, even 5 years ago.

It's why we've made a radical shift to a more portfolio-driven approach instead of just a resume-based one. And why we even offer the resume for FREE with our portfolio packages!

http://www.ittechexec.com/specialoffer.html

Yes, the resume is part of it, but let’s get more from your investment.


You still need a solid chronological resume (no matter what you may hear) geared toward a very specific audience, but when done properly, having addenda to go along with the resume can be much more effective (and much more likely to be read!), not to mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile, which will continue to grow over the next few years.

Portfolios can help build in flexibility and prepare you to face different hiring scenarios. But you need to know which tools are best for your situation. Although there is a lot out there you can do (or buy), you don't need to do everything (that's the good news!).

So whether you are an external job seeker looking for a new full-time role, a consultant going for the next contract, or an internal leader seeking promotion or just retention (such as during an acquisition), because we are following the tech job market closely, the real investment is in knowing which tools are right for you and how to properly use them. (To learn more about why we recommend a portfolio-driven approach, check out our presentations: http://ow.ly/viT6C and http://ow.ly/vM9UH.)

No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but we can make sure that you are prepared for whatever comes.

http://ow.ly/viT6C

http://ow.ly/vM9UH

Building the messaging AND the strategic vision for your job search that lead to solutions.


The portfolio is great, the branding is wonderful, but now what are you going to do with it? Is it going to give you experience you don't have, turn you into something you're not, take away the gray in your hair? Of course not. But when done right, it can do something that the 95% of technical professionals keep missing: It can speak to the needs of your target audience ONCE you get it into their hands.

And that is ultimately why we do what we do. We equip you to face obstacles in the market, and we position you for the best chances of success.

We began developing this “positive negative preparation” approach in late 2011 when we started to realize that our client “members” needed more than just a resume and basic messaging; they needed a strategic vision.

That’s how NoddlePlace came to be…


To best provide this strategic visioning, we realized we needed to differentiate our solutions even further! This meant tailoring some to meet the needs of the more experienced tech pro, the leader with 15+ years of experience who is now wondering how to face this market that seems to penalize them often for things they can’t control, like age, experience, and high salaries. For this leader, it isn’t so much about climbing ladders as it is about protecting what they’ve built so far and staying relevant to the marketplace.

So we customized ITtechExec to meet the needs of this type of client.

Then we introduced NoddlePlace in 2013. Here we focus on the “emerging” technical professional with 5 to 15 years of experience who knows another 25 years or more in the tech job market means 8+ more career moves, statistically speaking, and wants to keep advancing in the market but now has a lot of other demands on his or her time.

In either case, though, they are both looking for real solutions…

And protecting careers protects families.

Too many times we think of our careers in terms of climbing the ladder of ambition and in having it all “figured out.”

And although there’s nothing wrong with having ambition, there’s much more to our livelihoods than that. There are people depending on us, and no matter where we stand on the corporate ladder, we all have

something to protect.

And that protection requires preparation. (If you want to toss in ambition, great!) It doesn’t necessarily mean you have your whole life mapped out or that the obstacles you face aren’t real. It does mean,

though, that you aren’t going to keep letting corporate whims and job market trends toss you around with no regard for you and your family.


What is the cost of doing nothing? (Much more than the price of doing something!)

So we’ve developed our solutions, not to be so much an investment in a “resume” as an investment in proper positioning and solutions to your

career needs.


Call it holistic. Call it different. We like to think of it in terms of allowing us to track results and ROI. After all, isn’t that what matters? (Tell that to the graduate programs and certification schools who often aren’t held accountable for their ROI; yet their prices go up, up, up!)

There are good resume writers out there. But they can’t/don’t/won’t do anything more than write the resume and send you on your way. And the resume alone isn’t really addressing the main issue: your age, lack of experience (too much experience), family or geographic restrictions, job hopping, you name it.

Having the right messaging is good; having the right messaging with the right strategic visionis better.

But the story doesn’t end there…or it shouldn’t…

http://www.ittechexec.com/pricing.html

http://www.ittechexec.com/consultcall.html

To learn more about ITtechExec or our other solutions:


Check Us Out

Or call Stephen toll-free at 1-866-755-9800; email at [email protected].

Also, check out our free self-assessments:

From Tech Job Market Zoo to Corporate Goo...

How to Protect What You’ve Built So Far.

LI Profile Optimization Self-Assessment

Career Move Preparation Self-Assessment

http://www.ittechexec.com/contact/

mailto:[email protected]

http://ittechexec.polldaddy.com/s/linkedin-profile-optimization-self-assessment

http://ittechexec.polldaddy.com/s/career-move-self-assessment?p=1&r=AF76B318DBAB251E97CE85780CBB59BD&pb=1

Acing the Informational Interview

Career

Transcript of Acing the Informational Interview