Career Advice

Former recruitment agency experts answer employment questions, candidly suggesting how to negotiate your salary, find a really good job, handle phone interviews, and more.

Sage advice like this is priceless.

Informational Interview Tips

If you've ever asked another person for help, then you have a key skill you can use to learn about careers. Informational interviewing involves interviewing people to gather information, but unlike the typical job interview you set up the interview and asking most of the questions once it begins. Your goal is to gather information that will help you make informed career decisions and who better to tell you about a particular career than someone who is actually working in that career? They can give you all sorts of insider information on:

• What the Career Entails - Books and career internet sites are often limited in what theyt can tell you about what a particular career really is like on a day-to-day basis.
• The many ways to Break into the Career.
• Trends Emerging Within the Career.
• Both the Positive and Negative Aspects of the Career. Books and Internet career resources focus mostly on the positive aspects of a particular career.
• The Type of Person Who Tends to Enjoy and Succeed in the Career. Find out if your own personality would be a good fit for a career. Figure out what education, experiences and skills you'd need for the career and how you could get them.

Another benefit that often emerges from informational interviewing is that you hear about internship or job opportunities that might be available. While it's best not to go into an informational interview with a hidden agenda to ask for an internship or a job, often the person you're talking to will just happen to such possibilities for you to look into.