Maturity                                               Volume 1 Number 15

            Works     Newsletter        May 2004

maturityworksvictoria@canada.com                           www.maturityworksvictoria.50megs.com

 

Maturity Works Society is dedicated to support and inform all persons over 40 years of age concerned with employment and career options in our rapidly transforming socio-economic society.

 

 

How to Set Up Information Interviews

By Tom Oak

 

In the last issue of Maturity Works I wrote about the importance, when one is looking for work, of following up on job ideas by talking to people-in-the-know about them.  And not just job ideas, ANY idea that has to do with advancing your life goals.  Too often people, especially when they are in a state of unemployment funk, dismiss their ideas as impossible before they even begin to check them out.  Take heart, exposure to reality is much more likely to refine and bolster an idea than it is to kill it.  If you are wondering about training you may need, or about further education, or about what it would take to turn a hobby into a business, or about what it would be like to sell real estate, design web sites, deliver groceries, whatever, ask someone who knows.

 

Obtaining information interviews, although admittedly a nerve-wracking activity for most of us, is easier than asking for work – you are only asking for information after all.  Almost everyone is happy to answer questions about stuff they know.  Let’s say you want to find out about working for an ad agency.  If you know someone or someone who knows someone in the ad business that’s a good place to start.  If you don’t, you could start with the yellow pages.  Where you start isn’t critical, THAT you start is. 

 

So, you find New Age Advertising Solutions listed in the Yellow Pages and that seems interesting. Write down the name and number on a blank sheet of paper, that’s a beginning.  You’re going to want to connect with someone there who can answer your questions, and that won’t likely be the person who answers the phone.  The receptionist’s duty may involve screening calls.  A reliable way to deal with that possible roadblock is to ask, politely, for the name of the manager.  Usually this will be given without question.  Then, if the receptionist evades your further request to speak with Mr(s) X, you can call back later and simply ask for them by name.  Seems dubious?  It works!  And, anyway, you’ll find that most companies, individuals, etc. will look kindly upon requests for short information interviews. Good idea: practice these phone techniques with a friend or fellow job-seeker.  You’ll find that this gets rid of most of your nerves and toungue-tied-ness. Be clear, once you have X on the line, what you want and how long it will take (10 – 15 minutes at most).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick tips for the Information Interview:

• Prepare questions ahead of time
• Take notes
• Ask, “Who else should I talk to”
• Write down the full name and title of your interviewee
• Have your resume with you but

DO NOT offer it unless they ask

• Do not ask for a job!
• Leave time clear after the interview, they often go overtime
• Check in about time after the arranged time is up, “We are at 15 minutes now.  Shall we wrap up?”
• Send a thank-you-for-your-time, etc. card ASAP
• Remember, creating a good impression of you as an excellent listener who is interested in this business, etc. could make this interview into a pot of gold.   q

 

 

New Job Seeker Site!   The Greater Victoria Economic Development Commission has launched a new web site to act as a beginning point for Victoria area job seekers.   employmentvictoria.com   The hope is that this site will help job seekers, confused by the plethora of ever changing employment sites, to find out where to go.  Try it out and tell us what you think.  Your letters on any job related topic are welcome!