I’m not pretending.
MYTH: If you do enough informational interviews you will land yourself a killer job.
TRUTH: False. Informational interviews are NOT job interviews and should never be used as such.
Sure, every young PR flack has been told of the gleaming qualities of doing info. interviews. Unfortunately, not many of us have been told how to properly have one. Unfortunately, many disguise themselves as interested individuals, only to really be seeking one thing: employment.
Julie Rusciolelli, founder and president of PR agency MAVRICK and author of the blog Voice from the PR Maven, seems to have run into many of these types of interviews. She brings up a good point, “How much information do you need about MAVERICK that’s not already out there?” [by 'out there' she means the Internet]
When did Google become such a qualified measure of research? [You hear it all the time, when people say "I looked it up"...it really means they just Googled it] Don’t get me wrong, I love Google, but it can really only take you so far. You can’t get out of the Internet what you can get out of real time.
For starters, you can see/hear the flicker of passion when someone talks about their work; you can learn what the culture is of their office/agency; you can better decide whether this person could be an adversary; is this someone you can trust? And most importantly, is this someone you could work with in the future? Much like in the world of PR you build relationships.
Of course, in turn, you hope that they gain the same knowledge of you. It may not be for a job, directly, but I’m sure if both of us work in the same industry, in the same area, it is likely that our paths will cross. Is it such a bad thing that I want to intimately get to know the industry I want to work in? Personally, I’m already employed, am not looking for alternate employment and I still do informational interviews.
I was continuously surprised to read that she would prefer us to use the cold, hard informal way of the Internet, when just a couple of posts ago she was commending people for doing business the “old-fashioned way” – snail mail instead of e-cards and phone calls instead of emails [which I agree with]. How is this so different? It’s not.
I understand that many people do use the guise of the ‘information’ interview to get their foot in the door. It really speaks volumes of their character when they can’t be upfront and honest. It’s unfortunate that these incidences could sour such fun networking path for me. I, also, am weary of mingling and meeting new people but it is a wonderful feeling to sit among minds that have such similar interests and such a breadth of knowledge. It is refreshing to have the opportunity to chat with people way smarter than me. And it can be some of the most educational conversations I could have, none of which could ever occur on the Internet.
So, Julie, thanks for letting me know you like organic chamomile tea. I may find myself in the situation where that would be good to know.