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October 11, 2006
The Value of Informational Interviewing
If you want to practice in a place to which you have few or no connections, networking is critical and informational interviewing is one way to build a network. In an informational interview you are gathering information, not interviewing for a job.
First, you need to develop a list of people to contact for informational interviews. Consider alumni (the CSO can help with this), friends, faculty, college alumni, and former employers. Next, send a letter or email requesting an informational interview (we can help with this too), and follow up with a phone call if you don’t hear back.
Then, you need to prepare for the interview. It is essential for you to prepare questions in advance. In addition, you need to be ready to discuss your goals and interests. In addition to gathering information about practice in a particular location or in a certain area of practice, it is possible that the person you meet with will be in a position to help you – suggest others to talk with, think of you when an opening comes up at their place of employment, even forward your resume to a few people they know.
Examples of questions for you to ask include: tell me about your job, what do you like and dislike about it, what sort of training/experience does your position require, what is the employment outlook in this geographic area and for “x” area of law, what path did you take to get here, do you know of others I might talk to, do you know of employers that may be in a position to hire a law clerk/new attorney, what advice do you have for me as I search for a job?
Be sure to send a thank you after the informational interview and to stay in touch with that person.
We know many of you are skeptical, but the majority of job openings are never advertised, so informational interviewing and networking often leads to employment!
Posted by smp20 at October 11, 2006 09:23 AM