Stop Spinning Your Career Search Wheels – Informational Interviews Part One

Let’s face it deciding what to do next with your career or pounding the pavement with your resume isn’t fun. As a career coach I often speak with people spinning their wheels with either the career or job search process.

With more than 600 plus jobs out there how can it not be difficult to decide what to do next? One way to move forward and reduce the frustration is to set up an informational interview in the field of your choice. An informational interview can help you gain momentum in two ways.

The term “informational interviewing” comes from Richard Nelson Bolles, best-selling career guide, What Color Is Your Parachute? In his book Bolles refers to the informational interview process as “trying on jobs to see if they fit you.” It is a way to get current information about an occupation by talking to people who are working in the occupation.

It is far more informative and effective then google searching a job description. The second way an informational interview can reduce job search frustration is how fast it can lead to an offer. One out of every 200 resumes submitted results in a person getting a job while one out of every 12 informational interviews results in a job offer.

Pretty amazing, right? Stay tuned Part 2 10 Things You Should Know About Informational Interviews.