Advantages - Career Turn

It is less formal than an interview, so both you and the person you are meeting with will feel free to have a conversation rather than a cross-examination.
You define the agenda, and so you can learn about the broad issues and needs of the person’s organization. This will help you discover opportunities still in the making–as well as those that are already defined.
If you do not identify any opportunities with the organization, you can still obtain referrals to other potentially helpful sources of jobs and advice–unlikely in an interview situation.
If your contact’s organization does have an opening, and you create a favorable impression during this meeting, you will enter the interview process with a considerable advantage.
If the person you are meeting with has the ability to hire or recommend you, the information meeting format gives you a better opportunity to stimulate interest than a formal interview would. You can easily arrange follow-up meetings or interviews in which the information you have gained can be put to good use.

Source: “The Advantages of Informational Interviews”
Original Publication: WetFeet
Subjects: Informational Interviews, Interviewing

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