Informational Interview Question Bank
You do not need all of these. Pick five or six that match what you actually want to know, put them in the order you most want them answered, and expect to get through three. The best conversations go sideways early because you followed something the other person said, which is the point rather than a problem.
If the person you are talking with went to Wesleyan, start with the first section. Those are the questions nobody else can answer for you.
If you have not set up the conversation yet, see Networking for how to find people and what to write.
Questions Only a Wesleyan Alum Can Answer
An alum can tell you how they got from Wesleyan to the work they do now, which is the part no recruiter can explain. Start here.
- What did you study here, and how much has it mattered since?
- How did you explain a Wesleyan degree to employers who wanted something more specific?
- Which classes turned out to be useful in ways you did not expect?
- Which experiences and activities taught and prepared you the most? (research, campus job, club, athletics, study abroad_
- Did you know anyone doing this work when you graduated, or did you have to find them?
- What did the first year after graduation actually look like for you?
- What did you do the summer after senior year?
- Is there something you did at Wesleyan that you would tell a student to do more of?
- Was there something you worried about senior year that turned out not to matter?
- Are there other Wesleyan people where you work?
- Has the Wesleyan network been useful to you, and how did that happen?
- If your thesis or a research project came up in an interview, how did you talk about it?
That second question is the one to ask if you only ask one. Every Wesleyan grad has had to translate a liberal arts education for someone who wanted a professional major, and the ones who did it well can hand you the language.
How They Got Here
Comfortable openers. The answers usually contain three things you will want to ask about.
- How did you get to where you are now?
- What did you think you were going to do when you were my age?
- Was there a turn in your path you did not plan?
- What did your first job out of college have to do with what you do now?
- Is there a decision you would make differently?
- Who helped you early on, and how did that happen?
What the Work is Like
The questions that tell you whether you want the job, as opposed to whether you want the job title.
- What does a typical day look like, or if there is no typical day, what did yesterday involve?
- What are you working on right now?
- What part of the work do you enjoy most?
- What is the hardest part, or the part people do not expect?
- How much of your week is meetings, writing, analysis, or working alone?
- What does a bad week look like?
- What would surprise me about this job if I did it for a month?
Skills and Preparation
Useful when you are trying to work out what to do with the next two semesters.
- What background, skills, or experience does someone need to be taken seriously for an entry-level role?
- What is a skill you use constantly that nobody told you would matter?
- What did you have to learn on the job that you could have learned earlier?
- Is a graduate degree expected, either to start or to advance, and when is the right time to do it?
- What should I be doing now, as a [year], that would make a difference in two years?
- Are there tools, software, or certifications worth learning before I graduate?
- What kinds of internships or projects actually prepare someone for this?
Culture and Fit
Vague as a topic, so ask about specifics and let the person generalize.
- What is the culture like where you work, in terms of how formal it is and how much people collaborate?
- How independent is the work? Would I be handed a project or handed a team?
- What is the pace like, and does it come in waves?
- What kind of person does well there, and what kind of person struggles?
- How does feedback happen, and how often?
- Do people stay, and where do they go when they leave?
- What would you want to know before accepting an offer there?
Getting In
Ask these when you have a target rather than when you are exploring, and late in the conversation, once the person has a sense of who you are. An alum who does not hire for their own team can still tell you how the process looked from the inside.
- How does hiring usually work for entry-level roles there?
- Do most people come in through postings, referrals, or internships?
- When does hiring happen, and how far ahead should someone be looking?
- What makes an application stand out, and what gets one set aside?
- Are there teams or functions that hire more often, or that people underestimate?
- If I were applying, what would you want to see in my materials?
- What do people get wrong when they try to break into this field?
Where the Field Is Going
These invite the person to think out loud, which is often where the most useful part of a conversation happens.
- How has this work changed since you started?
- What is changing right now that someone entering the field should be paying attention to?
- What parts of the job do you expect will look different in five years?
- Are there adjacent fields or roles I should be looking at that I have probably not thought of?
- What are you reading, listening to, or following to stay current?
Salary, Hours, and Life
These feel awkward to ask and are worth asking anyway. Alumni tend to be more candid about this than anyone you will meet at a recruiting event. The trick is to ask about the field rather than about the person, which makes the question easy to answer.
- What is a realistic salary range for someone starting out in this field?
- How does pay tend to progress in the first few years?
- What are the hours like honestly, and how much of that is seasonal?
- How much travel is involved?
- Is remote or hybrid work normal here, and has that changed?
- Is this a field where people can live anywhere, or does it concentrate in a few places?
- How do people in this field manage the parts of life that happen outside work?
Do not ask what someone personally earns. Asking what a range looks like for a starting role gets you the number you need without putting anyone on the spot.
Closing the Conversation
The last three minutes deserve as much planning as the first three.
- What question have I not asked that I should be thinking about?
- Based on what we talked about, is there anyone else you would suggest I talk to?
- Would you mind if I mentioned your name when I write to them?
- Are there other Wesleyan people in this field you would point me toward?
- Is there anything you would recommend I read, or anyone whose work I should follow?
- Would it be alright to check back in with you in a few months?
Then note the time: “I know I only asked for thirty minutes and we are right about there, so thank you for taking the time.” Send a thank-you within 24 hours naming something specific they said.
Questions to Skip
- Anything their profile or LinkedIn already answers. It reads as though you did not look.
- Will you hire me, or do you know of any openings. This puts the person in an awkward position and usually ends the relationship. If a role exists and they think you fit it, they will raise it.
- What do you earn.
- Anything requiring a long answer that arrives in the last two minutes.
If You Are Talking With Someone Specific
An alum one to five years out.
The most useful conversation available to you and the most underused. They remember the applications, the rejections, and the first six months, and they are close enough to your situation to be blunt about it. What did you apply to that did not work? How did you find this job? What do you know now that would have helped you senior year? Would you do it again?
An alum much further along.
Ask about direction and judgment rather than mechanics, since they may not know what entry-level hiring looks like now. How has the field changed? What do you look for in people you promote? What advice do you find yourself repeating?
An alum who changed careers.
What made you move? What transferred and what did not? How did you explain the switch to people who were hiring?
A current student a year or two ahead of you.
How did you find the internship? What did the application actually involve? What do you wish you had known before you started?
A professor.
What do people who study this go on to do? Whose work should I be reading? Are there former students of yours you would suggest I talk to?
Someone whose job you think you want.
What would make you leave this job? What do you do that is not in the job description? If I shadowed you for a week, what would put me off?
