Using Informational Interviews to Kick-Start Your Career Transition

At the start of a new year or significant change, professionals often reflect on their career and happiness. Often this career reflection may lead to a realization of dissatisfaction in your career trajectory. However, even with this realization, "pulling the trigger" to find a career more fulfilling might prove problematic when considering the significant risk of lost income, lack of direction, or just plain fear. Shifting your career trajectory or starting anew does not have to be scary, though. But before you leap, consider the following to ease your transition.

Skills Inventory

When considering a career change, the first step is to think about your current role and responsibilities. Reflect on your day-to-day tasks, which parts of your job do you enjoy, and which do you not. Thinking critically about the tasks that you enjoy and don't enjoy allows you to become clearer on what you might be interested in when applying for your next role. 

Next, create a running list of skills, technical competencies, and experiences that you have amassed throughout your work history. You should consider soft skills such as customer service and leadership and hard or technical skills such as data analysis and evaluation, or hiring and recruitment. On this list, you should also include technologies and software platforms that you are proficient in, such as Microsoft Office, Slack, Trello, Salesforce, etc.

Finally, it would help if you began to think about your interests. Have you heard of job responsibilities that are interesting to you? Do you have a passion or interest in a particular subject you would like to learn more about? Combining your interests, desirable tasks, experience, and skills will help you search for desired job industries, titles, and companies.

Informational Interviews

Matching a title to a job description will help to guide your career transition. While there might be many titles or positions that you are interested in, you must evaluate job descriptions based on your qualifications. As a rule of thumb, if you meet at least 70% of the job requirements, then you should consider yourself qualified to apply. Once you have narrowed your job titles of interest, you should utilize your network and LinkedIn to identify professionals within the industry with who you can set up an informational interview.

Informational interviews are not interviews for a potential job. It is a time to speak with stakeholders within the desired field or role to gather tips for transitioning and excelling within the role. These interviews are your opportunity to learn about the position's ins and outs and inquire about how the day-to-day responsibilities might differ from what job descriptions list. Informational interviews are also an excellent opportunity to learn additional skill sets or certifications that you might consider to make yourself a competitive candidate. It is important to remember that employees are volunteering their time, though, and are often not in the position to offer jobs. Therefore, informational interviews should not span beyond 20 minutes. At the end of each informational interview, you should be more informed about your positions of interest and if you need any additional education, certifications, or skills.

Next Steps

Now that you have created a clear list of what you want and are qualified to do and gathered information from professionals in the field, you have to decide your next best step. Perhaps the informational interview confirmed your interest, and you are prepared to take the next step. Then, it would help if you worked to tailor your resume to the roles that you found. Updating your resume might require you to translate some of your responsibilities or titles to show a clear relevance to the desired position. Or maybe you realized that the role of interest is not as exciting, or an entry-level position might require you to take a pay-cut that you cannot afford. In this case, go back to step one and find better-suited jobs and titles that match your interests and skillset. Ultimately, the goal is to be informed when embarking on a career transition. 

 Our Make My Career Over package is a one-stop-shop for professionals seeking a career transition. Together, we will identify your skillsets and interests to inform and recommend a list of 5 potential job titles/positions to narrow your search. Then, we tailor your application documents to assist in your getting the position that you want! Feel free to book a free 15-minute consultation to learn more about this package or other services that we offer.

Diana Williams, Resume Tailor