Hi there informational interviews,

Things have been busy this week. Fortunately, I dashed off this article a few weeks back and had it ready to go. I’ve been meaning to share it with you all for some time.

In other news: how is your informational interviewing going? I know the job market is tough in some areas. Please do reach out and let me know how it’s going and how I can support you!

Stay savvy!

ELM

The Art of the Informational Interview is free! But one way you can support my work is by sharing it with your colleagues, friends and family.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Informational Interviewers

Informational interviewing is a deceptively simple skillet. All you have to do is find people who interest you, ask them to coffee, ask them a bunch of question, rinse and repeat. In practice, though it can be much trickier. The people who are great at this go far, and find what they are looking for. Others give it a go, maybe get a slightly better job, but don’t ever capitalize on the full potential of informational interviewing.

Great informational interviewers are formidable people with broad networks and a deep understanding of the world. They usually can be found doing well-paid, impactful work and enjoying a sense of purpose and meaning in their life.

Anyone who wants to can become a master informational interviewer. It’s fairly straightforward although also very challenging. But I recommend you consider it, because the power of informational interviewing is logarithmic; you get exponentially more out of informational interviewing the better you get at it.

So for those who are interested, here are the 7 habits of highly effective (master) informational interviewers.

1. You don’t let fear or insecurity stop you from sending that e-mail Most people feel uncomfortable asking for other people’s time and attention. It’s a normal, pro-social trait to worry about the way other people will receive you. It’s just not particularly helpful when it comes to informational interviewing. You just gotta send the email! No hesitation.

2. You do the right amount of research You take the time to learn all the Google-able facts about someone before meeting with them. You should have in your head a rough outline of their work history, as well as a basic understanding of anything they’ve recently written. You don’t go overboard, though, because you know it’s not a good use of your time and it can actually make the conversation feel stilted and unnatural if you have a head full of biographical facts about someone.

3. You are highly responsive and good at coordinating meetings/dates Communicating with you is a dream. You’re so clear, prompt and easy-to-coordinate-with that the people you contact consider hiring you based on your excellent written communication skills alone! You provide date/time options, promptly send calendar invites, and make it effortless for your interlocutor to show up and be of assistance to you.

4. You don’t let a bad informational interview slow you down When you encounter a rude or discouraging person, you don’t take it personally. You know this is just part of the process and you get right back to reaching out and lining up interviews.

5. You follow-up within 48 hours You know that interactions (especially with recent acquaintances) have a predictable tempo, a conversation left lingering too long will likely grow cold. You follow-up within 48 hours, even if it’s just to say thank you.

6. You listen to yourself deeplyYou know that informational interviewing involves opening yourself up to the wisdom, experience and perspectives of other people. But you are equally aware of how important it is to listen to yourself. You’re looking for signs from within your own body, mind, spirit and heart that you are headed in the right direction for you. You listen to your “yeses” and you listen to your “nos,” allowing them to guide you towards your next informational interview.

7. You know when to take a break You know that there is more to life than professional development. You’re self-aware enough to know when you need to step away from your informational interviewing process, touch grass as they say, and reset.

And that’s it! :). If you’ve mastered these seven habits, or even if you haven’t and you’re working on it, hmu! I want to know how it’s going!

What I read this week

Grad School Is Not the Escape You Are Looking For ~ Erin Lowry for Bloomberg Its been said before, it’ll be said again, but Erin Lowry says it really well in this Bloomberg piece. Highly recommend. How to Deal With Financial Trauma ~ Juli Fraga for The New York TimesSo close to home, especially for us elder millennials who came of age during the Great Recession. We’ll talk about this topic more in coming weeks, but financial trauma can be a real hinderance when it comes to professional striving. Worth a read.

The World’s Largest Job Guarantee Is in Jeopardy ~ Sumedha Pal for JacobinAn entirely new topic for me. I spend most of my time thinking about work in my home country. It was fascinating to read about a push to digitize a job guarantee program in India.

I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon. ~ Austin Murphy for The Atlantic Just trust me :) The Psychic Toll of Class Mobility ~ Idra Novey for The Atlantic If you’re captivated by the work and world of Elena Ferrante; if you’re intrigued by the role of dialect in performances of class; if you’ve ever felt out of place or in danger of betraying your family of origin; this one is for you.

Anthony Fauci on Larry Kramer and Loving Difficult People ~ Anthony Fauci for Thew New York Times A beautiful testament to what can happen when you are willing to encounter other people in the world.