Part 8 of 15 in How to Find a Job: Stop queuing on portals. Show an employer the value you can add.← Part 7Part 9 →
This chapter explains how to use informational interviews to learn about a job before applying. It provides strategies for approaching professionals, especially in the Indian context, without directly asking for a job.
- Informational interviews help learn about a job and industry without asking for employment.
- Adjust for hierarchy and cultural nuances in India when approaching professionals.
- Start with contacts who are not too senior and have relevant experience.
- Craft concise messages with proof of your work and a clear, bounded request.
- Conduct meetings respectfully, focusing on learning rather than job seeking.
Bolles’s most borrowed tool was the informational interview. You talk to a person who does the work, before you ask anyone for a job. The purpose is to learn whether the work matches the Lotus, how people really enter, and what proof they trust. In India the same tool works, if you adjust for hierarchy, time, and the fear that every conversation is a disguised request for a seat.
The fear is justified, so name it
Seniors have been burnt by messages that begin with admiration and end with “any opening for me, sir?” They are right to be wary. You remove the wariness by being specific, short, and by not asking for a job in the first conversation. You may ask, at the end, who else you should learn from. You may ask what a credible fresher would need to show. You may not pretend you are only curious if you are desperate. Curiosity and a job search can coexist if you do not make the other person responsible for your placement.
Who to ask, in the order that works here
- A person two or three years ahead of you, in the work you want. They remember the door. They are less guarded than a director.
- A supervisor, not a founder, in a firm of under a hundred people. They feel the pain.
- An alumnus of your college who is not famous. Famous alumni receive a hundred messages. The person in year three at a mid-size firm receives three.
- A vendor, dealer, or customer of the company you care about. They see the company’s gaps from outside.
- A family contact, used last and used honestly. Tell them what you want them to say, and give them the website so they are not inventing you.
A message that gets a reply
Long messages die. So do messages that flatter. Here is a shape that respects a busy person in an Indian office.
Namaste, Meera. I am Karthik, a mechanical graduate from Trichy. I am not writing to ask for a vacancy. I spent a month on a pump shop floor and reduced scrap on one drilling step; the note is here: [link]. I am trying to understand how a small foundry actually hires someone who can do that kind of work. If you have twenty minutes this week or next, I will come with three questions and I will not ask you for a job. If you do not, a one-line pointer to someone closer to the work would still help.
Three features matter. The link is proof, so you are not a blank request. The ask is bounded. The refusal is easy. Send it on email where you can, and on LinkedIn where you must. WhatsApp is acceptable only when you already have a thin connection, and even then the message should be as formal as an email. Voice notes are a favour you have not earned.
The meeting itself
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes. You arrive having looked at their work. You ask questions you could not have answered with a search.
- What does a bad week look like in this role?
- What do people who succeed here do in the first month that others do not?
- Which skills do you wish freshers actually had, as opposed to the skills they list?
- How did the last person who joined without a brand-name college get in?
- What should I put on a one-page site so that a person like you would take the meeting?
Write notes the same day. Send a thank-you of five lines, mentioning one thing you will do with what you heard. Do not attach your resume unless they asked. Do attach the link if you did not send it before. A second meeting is earned by doing something with the first, not by “following up” with an empty ping.
Manners that are not servility
Use the name they use. Be on time, which in many Indian offices will make you early. Dress one step cleaner than the office, not like a wedding. Do not comment on the office politics you can smell. Do not ask salary in minute five. Do not speak ill of your college. If they offer tea, accept or refuse in one word, and do not make it a scene. Hierarchy is real. You can be respectful without being small. The content of your questions is what makes you a peer-in-training rather than a supplicant.
If a meeting turns into an interview, let it. Answer with stories from Chapter 4. If it does not, you have still bought something the queue cannot sell you: a map of the work, and often a name.
A weekly quota
Five specific messages. Two conversations. One thank-you note the same day. That is a serious week. Fifty portal applications and no conversations is a week you will not be able to remember.
Frequently asked questions
What is an informational interview?
An informational interview is a conversation with someone working in a field you are interested in, to learn about the job and industry.
How should I approach professionals for informational interviews in India?
Approach with respect for hierarchy, be concise, provide proof of your work, and do not directly ask for a job.
What should I ask during an informational interview?
Ask about challenges in the role, skills needed, and how others have succeeded, avoiding questions easily answered by a search.
Why are informational interviews important?
They provide insights into the job and industry, helping you understand the work environment and what is valued by employers.