You’ve noticed a potential mentor but suspect they are too busy to be a mentor? Or maybe you just don’t know how to break the ice with them. Try informational interviewing. Its not just for students or those choosing a career for the first time! Informational interviewing can help you transition to a new career field, further your network, or find a mentor.
Approach people who you suspect are too busy to be mentors and ask them for an informational interview. This is only one meeting of 30 minutes or so in duration but it has great potential for you to get excellent advice and information about the transition you are considering. It is also a way you can receive a little mentoring from several different people. Of course, be on the lookout for ways you can contribute to your interviewee’s efforts too, now or at a time in the future.
Here are the steps to make an info interview happen. Call your contact. Let them know you want to learn more about their career field and you were hoping they could help. Ask if you can schedule a time to speak with them for 30 minutes because you would like to ask them how they got into the field and about their recommendations for people considering entering the profession.
Following are some questions typically asked in an informational interview. Remember you most likely will not be able to ask them all since you want to keep the interview to only 30 minutes unless they encourage you to continue.
- How did you get to this point in your career?
- How did you find this job?
- What would you do differently if you were starting over in this field?
- Are there any professional associations you can recommend?
- What do you read to stay up-to-date in the field?
- What is happening in this industry?
- What recommendations do you have for a person interested in this field?
- Do you know others I should speak to about this career field?
Be sure to take a pen and paper for quick notes and recommendations and ask for their business card before you leave. Don’t forget to write and send a thank you note the following day.
Find a mentor by being found in the environment where the kind of people who you would like to have as a mentor hang out. The way to find the environment where they hang out is to first follow your own interests. Continue to make better distinctions about yourself and where you want to go then follow your nose to the gathering places for people whose interests match yours. Locate and engage the experts in those places. Share your enthusiasm and demonstrate that you are there to learn and that you are very interested in contributing to the conversation.
I found my most recent mentors by first defining my career goals then participating in my career field. I went to conferences and meetings, volunteered on committees, and entered the dialog appropriately. I looked for ways to contribute (usually by volunteering to do or organize something for the group) and I formed relationships through those activities.
Remember too that mentoring doesn’t have to be a formal arrangement. Most of my mentors weren’t even aware that I considered them mentors at all. This is because very important mentoring often occurs in small doses. Not to knock a formal mentoring arrangement because if both parties are willing to commit to meeting and talking for a regularly for a month or six there are benefits to both the mentee AND the mentor.
Many people say they want to take part in the finer things in life but of course there are always trade-offs. Unless you hit the lottery you will have to give up something or many things to achieve a more exquisite lifestyle. You may also have to be very self-motivated to work and accomplish. Of course, knowing and serving your higher purpose can effortlessly fuel the required work effort if your career and purpose are intertwined well.
Another option for a satisfying and purpose filled lifestyle is to move towards a more simple and cost effective way of living. This lifestyle is gaining momentum in some parts of the country as some strive to get back to a more simple way of being. It is a choice rooted in the idea of stepping away from the hustle and bustle to live a more authentic existence.
Reputations are built after a stream of first impressions converge and people start communicating and comparing notes about their experiences then reveling in the common ground whether it be positive or negative. Its just human nature and an important survival skill.
It takes consistent change of behavior for an extended duration of time to change a bad reputation. It also takes willingness on the part of the one who made the judgment to let go of their ego and be open to changing their mind. No easy task to change a reputation to be sure.
Priority #1: Take on a marketing campaign emphasizing the change. Be earnest in admitting an understanding about why things needed to change and the resulting empowerment and enthusiasm since making the change.
Priority #2: Strive to make every future first impression positive to the extent possible. Release the anxiety when finding those who refuse to allow a reputation to change or who form a negative first impression due to reasons you can’t control.
Here are a few links you may find to be useful tools to complement your career decision making. These are online tools but remember the best method to actually finding a job combines accessing your personal network and using online tools.
To access your personal network simply go to your family, friends, and acquaintances with a question such as this, “Who do you know at The Widget Company?” or “Who do you know in sales and marketing?” or “Who do you know who might be looking for part-time administrative help?” Customize the question to the type of position you are looking for and be sure to follow up with any leads they give after first asking, “Is it okay if I mention your name?” If they say no, you can still follow up with the new lead by reporting that you have heard their name dropped often in your personal networking so you wanted to say hello.
For online job search here are some handy sites you might want to bookmark for when you need them.
Chimby.com – career advice search engine
Fab Job – ebooks with specific insider information on a careers
FlexJobs.com – a job search site for telecommuting jobs
JobRapido.com – a great way to search many job search sites at once; send email alerts to yourself for your fav searches
InterviewUp.com – a good site to check when you are doing interview preparation
PayScale.com – very good site for salary research
Depending on what industry you are going into, entry-level jobs can mean different things for different companies. Some entry-level jobs may consist of purely secretarial work. After a certain amount of months, you may be offered a promotion if you have proven yourself to be a worthy employee capable of handling more complex tasks. Receptionist work is not as easy as it sounds in many cases, which is why so few firms are hiring inexperienced receptionists, regardless if they have a degree or not. Typically, in larger companies, the receptionist gets bombarded with phone calls, emails, faxes, and other office duties to ensure the office gets kept in running order. Your ability to multitask and keep everything running smoothly will undoubtedly impress your boss which can lead to a promotion within the company. If you get a job working with a company in which you have no experience in the field (such as engineering or law), it is unlikely that you will get promoted unless you receive an additional degree.
There are many other entry-level positions that require more work and can lead to even greater promotions. Many small positions within advertising or marketing have internships and jobs that operate on the same level as most interns. Most people start out on the bottom of the food chain in these companies and work their way up through their loyalty to the company as well as their dedication to work. In the grand scheme of things, it is worth it to take a menial job within a great company so that you will one day move up enough to have years of experience within the same industry behind you. Most high-level executives did not immediately gain their position after college, but had to work hard in order to climb up the corporate ladder.
This post was contributed by Sarah Russel, who writes about the best online schools. She welcomes your feedback at SarahRussel1234 at gmail.com
You ever fumble around with that “so what do you do for a living” question? Most of us have at one time or another, and not only when looking for a job or interviewing but just with meeting new people or networking in general. Well, there is a simple, free, tool online that you may want to check out. Take a look at the Pitch Wizard at 15SecondPitch.com. Push the green play button when you are on the site to be prompted with questions to help you generate your elevator pitch. You may need to edit it slightly or you may wish to generate several different pitches customized for different audiences.
In fact, let’s make it an Elevator Pitch Fest! My colleague, Susan Ireland, is collecting elevator pitches generated in the comments at her blog — The Job Lounge. You’ll find my elevator pitch at the top of the list. Please consider this a personal invitation for you to join in too. The goal is to reach 100 elevator pitches and, frankly, I think we can blow that one out of the park! Thanks much.
I ran across this presentation during my internet travels and wanted to share it. It is a little talk on success secrets. I especially like the part where he says you have to persist through the CRAP = Criticism, Rejection, A**holes, and Pressure. I find that so true. Many times people put off doing or exploring what they really want to do for their career. Then often when they do begin to venture out to do work they love, they might run into CRAP that they must learn to ignore as distractions. Most important, they have to learn to trust themselves, listen to that intuitive voice inside, and take action to connect to work that makes them feel good.
Sometimes people are surprised to realize what an inside game career management is. In fact if you are feeling stuck about what major to choose or what career to choose or what job to look for next, a great first step is to start envisioning what your ideal career or job looks like. This can only come from the inside! Only you know what you prefer and how you would like to live.
People really underestimate the importance of thinking about the the lifestyle they prefer when choosing too. It reminds me of a story I once heard about a fisherman who goes out to fish for a few hours everyday to earn his living. Then comes home, enjoys lunch, plays with his kids, then goes to town to play guitar each evening with his wife. Some vacationers come to town and one guy can not resist telling the fisherman how he can get more wealth by building up his fishing operation. Long story short, the fisherman is already living how he wants to live! The point is that that often lifestyle choice is a good way to weed out distractors. You might like to hear the short story for yourself though.
Another thing to consider early on in your decision making process is your natural strengths. This is very important because a fulfilling career is built upon natural strengths which enable one to work with ease and to gain expertise faster. Sometimes defining your strengths can be tough because we often tend devalue what we do well — everyone can do that, it’s not special…that kind of inaccurate thinking.
So one action to take is to record what you believe your strengths are. Then take some time to go to 3-6 people who know you well and ask them what they have observed that you do easily and well. Take notes and compare responses, including your own, to come up with a list of your natural strengths. Another good tool to try which I have mentioned before to get more data about your natural strengths is Marcus Buckingham’s “Now, Discover Your Strengths
Next, you can take what you have learned about yourself and start comparing that data to what is required in careers you are considering. You do that not only with internet research but with invaluable field research a.k.a. informational interviewing. Can I just tell you, it is amazing how much the view of a potential choice can change after talking to a few folks already in the career field. I cannot overemphasize how learning about careers in this way brings career choice to life (in addition to the other perks of actually talking to people and building networking relationships)!
Mostly though, I encourage you to follow what appeals to you now as that is a big indication of your intuition at work. Follow your nose with an understanding that you may not end up where you thought but career choice a process not a destination. I encourage you to dive into the process one optimistic step at a time.