Run an Informational Interview

This template is for practicing a short informational interview with a senior professional who has limited time. It helps you rehearse a respectful opening, ask career-focused questions, and end with a clear thank-you and next step. The goal is not to “win” the conversation, but to learn how to make the most of a brief networking call.

It is a good fit for job seekers, students, early-career professionals, and internal employees exploring a new function or career path. It also works for anyone who tends to ramble, asks overly broad questions, or struggles to close conversations professionally. Because the persona is busy but friendly, it is especially useful for practicing concise, high-signal conversation skills.

Use it whenever you are preparing for a real informational interview, networking call, or alumni conversation. It is also useful as a repeatable practice drill before career fairs, mentorship meetings, or outreach campaigns. Repeating the scenario with different question sets helps you improve pacing, curiosity, and follow-up quality.

The best questions are specific, respectful, and easy for the persona to answer from experience. Ask about the day-to-day reality of the role, key skills, common challenges, career path decisions, and what they wish they had known earlier. Avoid questions that are too broad, too personal, or easy to answer by reading the company website.

An ad-hoc practice conversation often drifts without a clear objective, time limit, or scoring criteria. This template gives the learner a defined situation, a realistic persona, a learner objective, and rubric criteria so the practice is repeatable and measurable. That makes it easier to spot whether the learner is improving or just getting comfortable.

Yes. You can swap the senior operations manager for a product leader, recruiter, engineer, healthcare administrator, or nonprofit director while keeping the same practice structure. You can also change the learner objective to focus on career exploration, referral requests, internal mobility, or industry research.

They should acknowledge the time constraint, steer back to the most important questions, and close cleanly. A strong learner will avoid turning the interview into a long personal pitch or an unfocused chat. Time awareness is part of the skill being practiced, so ending on time is a success, not a failure.

A good next step is small, specific, and easy to accept, such as asking whether it would be okay to follow up with one or two additional questions by email. The learner can also ask for a recommended resource, another person to speak with, or permission to stay in touch. The key is to leave the conversation with a clear, professional closing rather than a vague “let’s keep in touch.”

It helps prevent overtalking, asking generic questions, ignoring the time limit, and ending without gratitude or a next step. It also surfaces weaker habits like treating the interview like a job pitch or failing to listen closely enough to ask a useful follow-up. Those mistakes are easy to miss in real life, which is why a scored roleplay is useful.