What is Informational Interview?

An informational interview is a short conversation you request with someone doing work you are curious about, where the explicit goal is learning rather than a job ask. You are asking for twenty to thirty minutes of ground truth: what the work is really like day to day, how people actually break in, what separates the good from the average, and what is changing in the field. Done honestly, it is the highest-trust form of networking precisely because you asked for advice and meant it. Doing it well is mostly manners and preparation. Request modestly and specifically, arrive with researched questions you could not have answered with a search, run to time, and send a short thanks that names what you plan to act on. The cardinal sin is the bait-and-switch, where a job pitch hides inside a learning request; people smell it immediately and it poisons the well. The paradox worth knowing is that referrals and leads often follow anyway, precisely because you did not ask, and a follow-up months later showing you took the advice keeps the door open.