Richard N. Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute? first coined the term Informational Interviewing. Wikipedia defines it as “a meeting in which a job seeker asks for advice rather than employment. The job seeker uses the interview to gather information on the field, find employment leads and expand their professional network. This differs from a job interview because the job seeker asks the questions. There may or may not be employment opportunities available.”
This is a great approach for college students in the early stage of exploring careers. It is low pressure for both parties. The student has to demonstrate interest, ask good questions, be a receptive listener, and exhibit a professional, respectful demeanor. An in-depth background is not required to simply explore a career alternative. The professional is not “on the spot” to identify a job opening for the student. He simply has to offer insights about his career path, biographical perspective, and answer the student’s questions about the field.
How do you identify professionals to interview?Unless you grew up under a rock, you know adults in careers that hold interest for you. Your parents, extended family, historical friends from high school, church/synagogue/mosque or camp, college roommates, fraternity brothers or sorority sisters, professors, coaches, doctors: and people they know. Remember 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
Whether they are young professionals or high-powered veterans, they’re likely to agree to an informational interview, since you are not asking for a job. Ask about rewards and frustrations, longterm career path, and lifestyle. Remember, people love to share their bio and give advice, so let them! You’d be surprised how many people out there are really nice, and find it rewarding to give helpful perspective to a young person. Consider asking to “shadow” an individual for a day and find out what “life in the trenches” is really like.
QuintCareers.com offers a comprehensive tutorial on informational interviewing that is well worth your time. A NY Times blog post by Marci Alboher called “Mastering the Informational Interview” also gives some great tips. It is never too early to explore careers this way. If starting your senior year—I definitely recommend doing it! You will not only gain knowledge of career paths within your major field, but you will gain confidence, polish one-to-one interviewing skills, expand your professional network, and make an impression that could potentially translate into a job later on.
I have been surprised at how many college students are unaware of this approach to career exploration and job search. But it is the perfect first step! On campus, you are primarily exposed to academic professionals, rather than adults who are using a background similar to yours in a business, medical or government setting. Expand your circle of advisors beyond professors to all kinds of practitioners in your field. You may discover an application of your training that you never knew existed!
File away everything you learn! Some career paths may not make sense right out of college, but may work for you later on. A new area you discover may inspire you to focus on getting an internship or job in that specialty immediately. Or you may hear cautionary tales about a career path you were previously excited about–such an interview may be disillusioning, but may prevent career disaster.
You finished your summer internship and you’re back on campus. Time to dive into September frat parties, catch up with friends, make sure you’re enrolled in the right classes with the best professors from RateMyProfessors.com. Another college semester is underway!
Not quite. You’ve got a few things to do before your summer internship fades into history…
1. Update your resume.Describe what you accomplished in your summer job, before you forget. If it was a professional internship, what were your responsibilities, what did you initiate, what did you achieve? If you didn’t have great opportunities to change the world, you still may have gained exposure to how systems work in your field, and that is valuable too. Tweak it later, but at least write it down.
2. Update your LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t joined LinkedIn yet, now is the time: LinkedIn’09GradGuide. If you feel confident enough in your relationship with professionals you have met or worked for this summer, ask them to write you a LinkedIn recommendation. While you’re at it, join a few groups, like your high school and college alumni groups, and professional groups aligned with your field of study.
3. Show appreciation for internship supervisors and colleagues.Send a thank you note to your boss for the learning opportunity you had this summer. In this economy, internships are hard to come by, and if you were fortunate enough to obtain one, show gratitude! Stay connected with your supervisor and professionals you have met during your internship. If there is something that you can do for them (i.e., an introduction to a professor who does research in an area they are interested in, a sports event at your college they may enjoy attending, etc.), go out of your way to offer it. After all, they did you a big favor by hiring you and spending time training you this summer!
4. Get your updated resume to your school’s career service office.Before you know it, the recuriting process for next summer’s internships will be underway. So before you become immersed in your fall studies, get an updated resume over to career services. Then it’s on autopilot and you can relax for a few months.
5. File important stuff. A research study or regression you did, confidential information that shouldn’t be floating around your frat, whatever. Get organized. You never know when you might need this stuff.
Leveling out of MBA applications may be a paradoxical bright spot in the dismal 2009 economy. This past cycle was “not a pretty picture” for many applicants! My clientele fared well, but geographic flexibility was essential: a willingness to consider elite graduate business programs beyond the Northeast Corridor.
It may come as a relief to recent college grads that getting into B-school might not get any harder in the next cycle or two than it already is! Stay tuned for discussions of timing and strategy for MBA applications. Anybody planning on applying in the near future?
College is fun. You’re surrounded by smart, dynamic young adults. Constantly stimulated by intellectually engaging courses. Enriched by a convenient array of extra-curricular activities and entertainment venues. And parties! What’s not to love? The only thing not to love is that college ends. You have to enter the “real” world. OMG!
How will you be prepared for that? Not just career choice, job search, the entry level job. But the whole enchilada: renting an apartment, furnishing your living space, buying insurance, leasing a car, investing, filing tax returns, finding doctors, figuring out a commute, creating an urban social life…the list goes on.
If this post suffers from link overload, it’s because there’s so much help out there! Every young adult is a unique individual, whose life will unfold mysteriously, serpendipitously, sometimes quixotically. But once in a while, a book, website, or personal story can offer a clue.
If you’ve already graduated from college, what was the most challenging aspect of the transition for you? What would you want seniors in college to know as a heads up? If you could do anything over, what would you do differently?
The Daily Beast’s contributor Zac Bissonette recently posted, “Is This The Worst Year to Graduate College Ever?” I will spare you the dismal statistics, except one, May’s unemployment rate of 9.4%, double the rate of two summers ago. Whether summer internship or entry level position, it’s a jungle out there. Life has become tougher for the Entitlement Generation, and disappointing for their parents, who wanted them to have everything.
When my 19 year old son was growing up, he listened eagerly to his grandfather’s dinner tales of ancestor immigrant hardships, the Great Depression and WWII. When my son was five, Poppop described having nothing to eat but oatmeal. My son (who carries on the oatmeal-loving gene) exclaimed, “You’re so lucky! Wish I could eat oatmeal all the time.” At 15, my son expressed almost an envy that his generation was not given the opportunity to face adversity like his grandfather. With wisdom beyond his years, he recognized the role of hardship in eliciting courage and character, as it did for Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation. Looks like they’re going to get their chance.
I don’t mean to trivialize the stress, anxiety, frustration, humiliation and discouragement that a fruitless job search, subpar entry level position, or arbitrary layoff brings. As a parent and career coach, I wince at the thought of young people I care about enduring painful experiences. My blog posts and website offer resources for finding a job as quickly as possible in this economy. But this post is about perspective.
Richard Carlson, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, told a story about a wise man who was consulted by a villager about a series of dramatic events. When the villager asked, “Isn’t this the worst thing that could happen?” the wise man replied, “Maybe, maybe not.” When he asked, “Isn’t this the best thing that could happen?” the wise man replied, “Maybe, maybe not.” Check Thoughts.com for a quick racap of this insightful story. Someday you may look back on this tragic unemployment situation as the crucible in which you proved the qualities your grandson will admire.
There’s a movie that needs to be re-released right now. It’s based on a true story, Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner, a young African-American homeless single father who became a successful stock broker during the 1970’s economic downturn. Mr. Gardner’s struggles and triumph were immortalized by Will Smith (with real-life son Jaden) in the award-winning motion picture:
Not everyone will be a Chris Gardner, but this economy might produce a few. It will call upon all your creativity, intelligence, perseverence, courage, grit, and belief in yourself. You may find yourself taking detours and end up in a far different place than you originally imagined. But hang in there! It just may bring out your best.
My experiences are so different from those of Generation Y–my history, the stories I grew up with. What are your feelings about this economic downturn, the effects on employment prospects, and your trajectory for the future?
My favorite: Careers-in-Finance.Com. They claim to “demystify” jobs in finance, a great word, because college students who major in economics still ask, “What does an investment banker actually do?” The site describes key career paths, offers great sitelinks, recommended books, key players, job listings, a place to post your resume, headhunter list, and job outlooks. BTW, it’s up-to-date! This site identifies opportunities in a field that has changed dramatically this year. Yes, there still are opportunities, if you know where to look!
Another “fave” is WetFeet.Com, offering profiles of careers, industries and companies. It covers a wide range of fields. It has sections for undergrads, MBA’s, entry level and experienced professionals. Wetfeet publishes Insider Guides, terrific booklets on careers, industries and companies. Another site I recently discovered is CareerTV, a global TV programmer and interactive website designed to help college students and young professionals explore careers, industries, and companies. Watch a video, you’re ready for the interview.
What have your experiences been like in financial fields over the past year? I would like to hear from twenty-somethings who have faced difficulty finding positions, or those who have dealt with job uncertainty and loss. How have you been affected by these experiences? If you spent time laid off, what have you done during that time period? What nuggets of wisdom would you offer to students coming out of college who are interested in economics or finance?
You’re a college junior, composing a paper on your laptop, FaceBooking and IM’ing at the same time. You have a text from Mom asking you to check email because she sent you vital travel info but you never check. What other communcation tools do you need?
LinkedIn? What’s that? Oh, that boring site for business contacts. Put up a profile? Oh, puhlease…
But you’d like to get a summer internship, and a job when you graduate. The career placement office made you put together a resume, and it might be good to have a public, professional presence online. Employers may be looking, and you’d have a high Google rank with an instant profile. Ok, so there are some benefits for college students on LinkedIn.
Some of your friends have websites or blogs. The artist with the online portfolio, the biotech major with his posted research, the journalism major with her active blog. LinkedIn can instantly link to those collections of a student’s work!
That guy that graduated last year, he’s working for the company you’re interested in, and maybe he could pass your name along to somebody. But how to find him? Oh, he’s probably on LinkedIn. He could forward your profile or recommend your work, because you were on that team project together.
Come to think of it, LinkedIn might be a good way to keep in touch. They have all these Groups: High school and college alumni, the company you worked for last summer, professional associations for your field, people from your hometown, or summer camp. All those people grow up, find jobs, become important—just like you. It might not be a bad idea to keep up with them, or be there so they could find you.
Join the club! As Bill Clinton once said, “It’s the economy, stupid!” So how could you spend your college summer?
1. Take a course! Get a requirement out of the way, especially a difficult one. Give it your full focus, perform better, and have an easier workload this fall. Or take an elective at an accredited school near home if your college will give credit (check in advance). If you attend a private college, take summer courses at your state university as a strategy for saving money on college tuition: save more than you’d earn in a summer job!
2. Attend a workshop.Gain professional tools as valuable as an internship, or perhaps more. If you didn’t land that Wall Street summer gig (surprise, surprise), how about 4 weekends at the CFA-accredited Investment Banking Institute, offered in 10 U.S. cities? Its $1600 student price is a bargain compared to executive education at prestigious universities, and you’re free during the week to do hourly work to pay for it.
3 Beef up your technical proficiencies.Add to your professional toolkit for a future job. Let’s say you are a fine arts student interested in a possible career in applied art, such as computer graphics, web design or animation. Buy a software program and learn it thoroughly! Academic Superstore offers reduced prices for students. Or take a non-matricultant online course through the WASC-accredited Academy of Art University.
4. Do volunteer work in your field. For medical, education and helping professions, it is essential to develop your human contact capabilites, not just academic skills. Volunteer work can help you assess the rewards and frustrations of dealing with clients in your prospective field, as well as different working environments. It also may strengthen your graduate school application.
5. Do research. Yes, it’s too late for grant-funded research. But what about approaching a professor to do unpaid research this summer? Structure an independent study for academic credit. Undergrad research is not just for standouts, it’s expected for graduate school applications in academic, science and medical fields today (Science Magazine’s Science Careers and Student Doctor Network). Next summer, when you have time to apply, explore National Science Foundation Research for Undergraduates.
6. Travel.In this economy? Of course! Excess capacity always yields transportation and lodging deals! The US Dollar is weak which makes Europe costly. But the Pound’s fall helps in the UK. In Latin America the dollar is still king. And gas prices won’t keep you at home like last summer! If you can swing it, you will never have more time to travel than right now, for adventure, education, community service, or visiting extended family.
7. Take graduate school prep courses and exams. If you plan graduate school straight from college, take advantage of this time window (vs. during a regular semester). If you plan to join the workforce and are considering graduate work, take the test now. Tests are valid for 5 years. You’ll never be “smarter” than right now! Click here for GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, or GRE.
8. Learn a foreign language.Master a language for an employment edge in the future, such as Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or Hindi. Enroll in a college course or Berlitz program, or buy Rosetta Stone (this incredible software could even teach me, the most “unlikely to succeed” language student!). If you can afford travel and program fees, consider Middlebury’s renowned language schools.
9. Do informational interviews and job shadowing. What do you want to do when you grow up? Finally you have time to find out! Unless you grew up under a rock, you know adults in careers that hold interest for you. Your parents, extended family, family friends, neighbors, teachers, doctors: and people they know. Remember 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon?
Whether they are young professionals or high-powered veterans, they’re likely to agree to an informational interview, since you are not asking for a job. Ask about rewards and frustrations, longterm career path, and lifestyle. Remember, people love to tell their bio and give advice, so let them! Ask to “shadow” an individual for a day and find out what “life in the trenches” is really like.
10. Suggest a tenth thing. If you were not able to get an internship this summer, what have you been doing? What have you learned from your experience so far? Do you have any advice for other students in preparing for their college summers?
Position U 4 College, LLC, is a career coaching service that helps students and young adults optimally position themselves to colleges, graduate and professional schools,and employers to create the future they want.
My website, www.positionu4college.com, is for parents, high school students, college students, and recent graduates. This site, careerblog, provides a discussion-based connection for college students and recent college graduates who are interested in career exploration, application to grad schools, and job search strategies for entering the workforce.
This is a great approach for college students in the early stage of exploring careers. It is low pressure for both parties. The student has to demonstrate interest, ask good questions, be a receptive listener, and exhibit a professional, respectful demeanor. An in-depth background is not required to simply explore a career alternative. The professional is not “on the spot” to identify a job opening for the student. He simply has to offer insights about his career path, biographical perspective, and answer the student’s questions about the field.
Whether they are young professionals or high-powered veterans, they’re likely to agree to an informational interview, since you are not asking for a job. Ask about rewards and frustrations, longterm career path, and lifestyle. Remember, people love to share their bio and give advice, so let them! You’d be surprised how many people out there are really nice, and find it rewarding to give helpful perspective to a young person. Consider asking to “shadow” an individual for a day and find out what “life in the trenches” is really like. 
It is never too early to explore careers this way. If starting your senior year—I definitely recommend doing it! You will not only gain knowledge of career paths within your major field, but you will gain confidence, polish one-to-one interviewing skills, expand your professional network, and make an impression that could potentially translate into a job later on. 
File away everything you learn! Some career paths may not make sense right out of college, but may work for you later on. A new area you discover may inspire you to focus on getting an internship or job in that specialty immediately. Or you may hear cautionary tales about a career path you were previously excited about–such an interview may be disillusioning, but may prevent career disaster.
You finished your summer internship and you’re back on campus. Time to dive into September frat parties, catch up with friends, make sure you’re enrolled in the right classes with the best professors from ![\](http://positionu4life.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/asianmansitlaptop.jpg?w=150&h=137 "\")
4. Get your updated resume to your school’s career service office.
Reporter Ann Vander Mey points out the precedent for a boom, then bust in B-school applications during recessions: “During the 2001 dot-com bust, 
Leveling out of MBA applications may be a paradoxical bright spot in the dismal 2009 economy. This past cycle was “not a pretty picture” for many applicants! My clientele fared well, but geographic flexibility was essential: a willingness to consider elite graduate business programs beyond the Northeast Corridor.
With the exception of
How will you be prepared for that? Not just career choice, job search, the entry level job. But the whole enchilada: renting an apartment, furnishing your living space, buying insurance, leasing a car, investing, filing tax returns, finding doctors, figuring out a commute, creating an urban social life…the list goes on.
CAREER EXPLORATION.
When my 19 year old son was growing up, he listened eagerly to his grandfather’s dinner tales of ancestor immigrant hardships, the Great Depression and WWII. When my son was five, Poppop described having nothing to eat but oatmeal. My son (who carries on the oatmeal-loving gene) exclaimed, “You’re so lucky! Wish I could eat oatmeal all the time.” At 15, my son expressed almost an envy that his generation was not given the opportunity to face adversity like his grandfather. With wisdom beyond his years, he recognized the role of hardship in eliciting courage and character, as it did for Tom Brokaw’s 
I don’t mean to trivialize the stress, anxiety, frustration, humiliation and discouragement that a fruitless job search, subpar entry level position, or arbitrary layoff brings. As a parent and career coach, I wince at the thought of young people I care about enduring painful experiences. My blog posts and 
about a series of dramatic events. When the villager asked, “Isn’t this the worst thing that could happen?” the wise man replied, “Maybe, maybe not.” When he asked, “Isn’t this the best thing that could happen?” the wise man replied, “Maybe, maybe not.” Check 
My favorite: 
Another “fave” is 
How have you been affected by these experiences? If you spent time laid off, what have you done during that time period? What nuggets of wisdom would you offer to students coming out of college who are interested in economics or finance?
You’re a college junior, composing a paper on your laptop, FaceBooking and IM’ing at the same time. You have a text from Mom asking you to check email because she sent you vital travel info but you never check. What other communcation tools do you need?
Some of your friends have websites or blogs. The artist with the online portfolio, the biotech major with his posted research, the journalism major with her active blog. LinkedIn can instantly link to those collections of a student’s work!
High school and college alumni, the company you worked for last summer, professional associations for your field, people from your hometown, or summer camp. All those people grow up, find jobs, become important—just like you. It might not be a bad idea to keep up with them, or be there so they could find you.
2. Attend a workshop.
a professor to do unpaid research this summer? Structure an independent study for academic credit. Undergrad research is not just for standouts, it’s expected for graduate school applications in academic, science and medical fields today (Science Magazine’s 
straight from college, take advantage of this time window (vs. during a regular semester). If you plan to join the workforce and are considering graduate work, take the test now. Tests are valid for 5 years. You’ll never be “smarter” than right now! Click here for 
Whether they are young professionals or high-powered veterans, they’re likely to agree to an informational interview, since you are not asking for a job. Ask about rewards and frustrations, longterm career path, and lifestyle. Remember, people love to tell their bio and give advice, so let them! Ask to “shadow” an individual for a day and find out what “life in the trenches” is really like. 
by Richard N. Bolles
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