“So…can I ask you a couple of questions?” — How to get the most out of your informational interview.
Lately, while job hunting I’ve been having informational interviews with employees from companies I’m either interested in or have applied to. As someone who is really concerned about company culture and environment, I’ve found that talking to current employees has been one of the best indicators of whether I’d be satisfied working at a company or not. While there are many articles about what to ask for in an informational interview, I’ve found that not many talk specifically about software engineering or how to go forward with the new information you got during the interview. Here are some things I’ve noticed and actions I’ve implemented as I conducted my interviews.
Before the Interview: Who are you meeting?
This might seem quite silly to answer, as of course, you know who you’re meeting in an interview! But I’m not talking about names and titles, but roles, responsibilities, and past work experiences, aspects that will all influence how you prepare for this interview. Interviewing someone who works in Customer Support or Finances is going to have a very different experience than someone in a Software Engineering team. Additionally, you cannot really ask tech specific questions to a Marketing team member. So what should you focus on? Here are some topics that can help you build your own.
If they’re non-tech related:
- Focus on researching the interviewee’s past experiences; are they are a new hire? Have they been there a while? What made them move? What is making them stay? Preparing questions that answer these might give you some new insight.
- How is their experience with management or C-Level management? How do they interact with other departments? Are there community-building opportunities or is it very department-specific?
- What type of person would succeed at that company? What type of person wouldn’t fit in?
If they’re tech-related:
- What kinds of projects are they working on? How are teams and projects decided? Do they like their current project?
- What led them to software engineering? How did they get to where they are now? What advice would they give to a new engineer?
- What is a day in their life like? How is the management and mentorship process like on their team?
- What technologies do they tend to work with? Where do they hope to work on next?
During the Interview: Focus on your 3 objectives
When you’re interviewing, depending on the person, connection, and time constraints, your interviews might go for 15 minutes up to over an hour. Especially if they are very willing to help or like to share, the more time you can spend getting additional details. However, regardless you should have 3 objective takeaways you’d want to get from the conversation and guide the conversation accordingly.
This is especially important if you only have 15–30 minutes, and want to make the conversation a fruitful one! Again, this will depend on the role of the person you’re talking to, but it’s really important to be aware of these throughout the conversation, as it’s natural and very easy to go off-topic or digress (especially during quarantine measures where human interaction is limited).
For example, for a non-tech interview, you might want to focus on company values, benefits, and cultural fit, while for a tech interview you might want to focus on opportunities for mentorship and growth, the company’s usual tech stack, and advice for new engineers. By isolating these, you can keep an eye on the clock and gently push the conversation accordingly.
After the Interview: Reflection
I found many sites talk about the thank you note as the end of the informational interview process, but few talk about what to do with the information you’ve just received. Hopefully, you wrote down notes on a notepad to refer to, but these are some points I recommend taking some time on after the interview.
- Reflect on the “story” of the interviewee. Often you’ll notice a common theme or narrative that reinforces what the interviewee thinks is most important about their company and their role. In my experience, for some it was the theme of ‘recognition’, for others it was ‘company support and benefits’. This might become super obvious when people discuss why they’ve left their previous positions and what they have found at their current one. This helps with understanding the interviewee’s perspective and how the company is viewed internally.
- What values did the interviewee value? How do these values connect with your own needs?
- In the cases of diversity, what feedback have you received regarding an inclusive workforce?
- How has COVID-19 impacted company morale and what does the future look like?
Not only will doing the above give some closure and insight to your future opportunities, but it might also give you some new things to think about while you are job hunting. Remember, a job should be a fit for both sides! What a company can do for you is as important as what you can do for the company’s needs and goals.
