Informational

☛ Develop a short (15-30 second) overview of yourself, including your reasons for contacting this person, as a way to introduce yourself and define the context of the meeting.

☛ Plan open-ended questions to ask.

People are typically uncomfortable stating their salaries. Do not directly ask the person how much he or she makes, you will make them extremely uncomfortable and break down any rapport you had built up! However, if you ask about salary in this more general way, you can often get an idea of the range.

This question is also great for drawing out the kind of inside information that only someone in the job could share with you.

Asking this informational interview question can help draw out any potential downsides of the job that might not be obvious to an outsider.

Example:

A workshop facilitator might tell you he dislikes all of the paperwork he is required to deal with. If you had simply attended one of the facilitator's workshops, you would see the public part of the job, but you would not know about the private side of the job.

This informational interview question can provide you with some insight into the typical career path of someone in this line of work as well as information about the skills, education and experience you may need to develop to be marketable in the field.