Читать книгу Reinventing You - Dorie Clark - Страница 25

Armed with your behind-the-scenes research, you’re finally ready to talk shop with actual experts. Informational interviews are an unbeatable opportunity to network with people who are doing what you want to do, to ask real-time questions about what their profession is like, and to weed out bad choices. (Friends of friends and your alumni network are usually the best starting places for people to meet with.)

Karen Landolt, a corporate attorney who transitioned to running a university career services office, requires her students to conduct at least four informational interviews and report back on them. She recalls, “I’d have people come to me and say, ‘I want to work at Goldman Sachs,’ and I’d say, ‘Great, who have you talked to there?’ They’d say no one, but they make a lot of money. And I’d say ‘Yes, but they work 120 hours a week—and have you talked to anyone at 3 a.m.?’”

There’s a risk to informational interviews, however, that most people don’t recognize: if you don’t know how to do them well, you can torpedo the relationship if you don’t make a good first impression. Here are six steps to follow.