How to Ask for an Informational Interview

Introduce yourself, explain why you chose this person, and ask for a short conversation about a specific career question. An informational interview is a chance to learn from someone's experience. It is not an interview for a vacancy, and your invitation should not suggest otherwise.

Yale's sample outreach emails connect the sender's interests to the recipient's work and request a bounded conversation. You can do the same without having a shared university or an impressive job title.

Decide what you want to learn

"Tell me about your career" leaves the other person to design the meeting. A narrower aim makes the request easier to evaluate.

For example, you might want to understand what customer success work involves, how someone moved from laboratory work to project coordination, or what an entry-level analyst actually does each week.

Choose someone with relevant experience, not simply the most senior person you can find. A recent entrant may know more about today's junior-role application process than a department head who last applied twenty years ago.

Request to someone you do not know

Original illustrative email:

Subject: Question about moving from teaching to learning design

Hi Robin,

I'm a secondary-school teacher exploring learning-design roles. I found your public profile while researching people who have made that transition. Your work designing training for new employees particularly interests me.

Would you be open to a 20-minute phone or video conversation about what changed in your day-to-day work and which skills helped you make the move? I'm seeking perspective on the field, not asking about an opening on your team.

I'm happy to work around your availability. Thank you for considering it.

Avery

Twenty minutes is a suggested small request, not an industry rule. Offer a duration you can actually respect.

Request through a mutual contact

Only mention an introduction or endorsement if the person has agreed to it.

Hi Robin, Maya Patel suggested I contact you and said I could mention her name. I'm exploring learning design after several years in teaching. Would you have 20 minutes to discuss how junior learning designers are involved in a project? Maya thought your experience training new team members might help me understand that work.

A connection is context, not leverage. Avoid language implying that the mutual contact has already committed the recipient's time.

After sending the invitation

If they agree, confirm the duration, time zone, and meeting method. Use a focused informational interview preparation plan and choose a few relevant informational interview questions. Send a short outline if requested, not a lengthy questionnaire. If they decline, thank them; do not ask them to justify their availability.

If there is no reply, one brief follow-up after about a week is a reasonable option, not a requirement. Then move on rather than contacting them repeatedly through different channels.

During the conversation, honor the learning goal you stated. If it helps you clarify a career change, use that insight later to build your own career-change explanation. Do not claim the contact endorsed your candidacy unless they actually did.