Page 27 - 101 Dynamite Answers to Interview Questions

20 Nail the Job Interview!
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Interview Types/Goals

There are two basic types of interviews with which the job seeker needs
some familiarity: the informational interview and the employment
interview. The informational interview results from the networking
process. You should talk with people in your area of interest and identify
persons who are in a position to share information with you about your
potential field of employment. Once you have identified persons who are
likely to have useful information, you want to contact them and try to
arrange informational interviews. As the name implies, you are not
seelcing a job from these people - only information and advice that will
be useful to you later in your job search.

Informational Interviews

Your goal in an informational interview will be to pose questions about
such things as opportunities in “X” field - at the entry level or at
whatever level you expect to enter the field; the likelihood of advance-
ment; what changes are taking place within the field that will affect things
such as hiring needs, special skills, degrees or certification necessary for
employment; special problems facing workers in “X” field; salary levels in
your geographical area in “X” field - both at your anticipated entry level
and as you advance. You will probably want to ask questions about
various companies in your area that are hiring workers in your field. Your
goal is to find out as much as you can about your field and the organiza-
tions that are hiring - or are likely to hire in the future - from people in
your field of employment.
For more information on informational interviews, you may wish to
consult another of our interview books, Interview for Success, as well as
Haldane’s Best Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Impact Publica-
tions). Since the informational interview is a particular type of interview
in which you become the interviewer, we only mention this type of
interview in passing here. However, it’s an extremely important type of
interview in one’s overall job search; indeed, it may be the single most
important job search activity for malcing contacts with potential
employers who may later invite you to a job interview. Our main focus in
this book, however, is the employment interview where you primarily play
the role of interviewee in the process of getting a job offer.