My experience with Exploratory Interviews

What are exploratory interviews?

When I first heard of “exploratory interviews” it was when I graduated from university and needed to start looking for a job. At that time the term I was presented with was “informational interview”. What I understood was that I find people in jobs, or on careers paths that I found interesting and wanted to do and then ask them about themselves. I figured, how hard can that be.

I was very shy and self conscious about speaking to strangers let alone people that I aspired to be like. But I started with doing some research on people in the field and in jobs I thought I would find interesting. I found their contact information. Drafted some emails and hit send. Now this was years ago before virtual meets and even remote work was commonplace. This means I had to find local people and I met them in person, over the phone or sent them and email full of questions.

I sent out tonnes of emails not expecting anyone to respond. Surprisingly, I got quite a few responses. I was told that if someone agreed to speak with me, not take up too much of their time, say 20 minutes. Well, I met with at least half a dozen or more people; I learnt that people love talking about themselves and didn’t mind sharing well over 20 minutes about themselves! 😊 It was great for me. I learnt about different jobs, personalities, parts of the country, offices as I met everyone in person. It led to some interesting results; a post doc position; an eventual research fellowship; and some great connections that I kept for years.

Fast forward a number of years and a career change, I’m faced with “exploratory interviews” again. I learn that they are the same as informational interviews. However, I’m wondering if I’ll be able to get anyone’s attention given so many people work remotely, people rarely meet in person, and in many cases the people and roles I’m looking for, are not local.

I have been very pleased with my exploratory interview experience after this career change and my most recent. While I may not be reaching out by email, LinkedIn has provided a platform to find, learn about, and connect with people in the industry I’m interested. A carefully crafted connection message and a few open ended questions for those that choose to connect and have the time has led to some great insights and next steps for me.

Steps I use for Exploratory Interviews:

Set expectations:

If your goal is to get a paying gig from an exploratory interview, you may be disappointed. If you want to talk to your idol within your industry, you may also be disappointed. However, if you want to talk to someone in a position you aspire to be in in the next 2-7 years, you will probably be pleased with the results.

Research people:

Decide what types or roles you are aiming for and find people in those roles and “above”. This research can be done anywhere but LinkedIn is a great place to start. Lots of people and most have their “job title” listed.

Make a list of people and contact details:

Contact details can vary nowadays and depending on the platform you find them on. Not all company websites have contact details or any contact details for their employees, let alone directories of their employees. Not everyone on LinkedIn provides contact details. If they do provide an email address and/or phone number, note it down. If not, make note of their LinkedIn profile.

Create an outreach message template:

If I have an email address or am already connected to the person in LinkedIn, I’m don’t have a character limit, so I can be a bit more verbose in my outreach message, but not too verbose. Succinct and too the point seems to work best. If I am not connected to the person, I am restricted to a character limit when I send out a connection request in LinkedIn and now I have to be concise and to the point in my messaging. In this most recent outreach for exploratory interviews, I also included a short introductory video. No character limit in a video!

Send out outreach messages:

I usually decide on a set number of outreach messages to send out each day tailoring the template to the particular person and situation, e.g. whether then are an existing connection or a new connection request.

Respond to leads:

If anyone responds to my outreach, I respond accordingly. This can include, setting up a virtual meet, thanking them for the connection acceptance, or emailing questions.

Track outreach and responses:

I use a Google sheet to track the date the outreach message was sent; when and if a response was received and notes the results of the exploratory interview itself.

Schedule exploratory interviews!

Not everyone I reach out to is going to respond or accept my connection request and that’s ok. There may be no response for a few days. Not everyone checks their LinkedIn and/or messages every day, and that’s ok too. Some things I check for before selecting someone as a potential person to reach out, I check to see that their LinkedIn is current and updated; I check to see if they are active on LinkedIn posting or interacting with posts. I also will check to see if we share any connections. There is no point in trying to reach out to someone who doesn’t seem present on LinkedIn.

Types of interviews

There are a few types of exploratory interviews I have had:

Questions answered through email.
Telephone conversations.
Virtual meetings.

I’m not sure if I have a preference to the type of exploratory interview. Email response to questions don’t leave as much opportunity for follow up. I will let the person I am interviewing decide which they prefer as I do provide all three options. If the person is local, I will also provide the option of an in person meeting. No one has taken me up on the in person meeting since Covid and virtual meetings have become commonplace. 😊

Types of questions I ask:

I suppose you can any questions you want and as many as you want. I try to keep it to 3 or 4 open ended questions and depending on the conversation, ask questions as they seem relevant. Some of the questions I come prepared with are,

Tell me about your career and how you to where you are now?
What are some things you like about where you work and what are some things you would change?
What advice would you give to someone starting out in this industry, looking to take the next step in their career in this industry?

I may also include some more industry specific questions. For example, with AI being so prevalent, I will ask something about AI and ask about their views on AI in some more specific context related to the industry and/or role they are in.

Depending on the person I am speaking to and their communication style, I may get all my answers from the first question, new or more interesting questions may arise, and in some cases none of the questions after #1 will apply.

Ultimately, I choose questions that will give answers to the questions I have about the industry, my next role, and/or the company.

What I do after exploratory interviews

At the end of the conversation,

I will thank the person for taking the time to meet and talk with me.
I will also ask if they are open to me reaching out if I have any questions and
I will extend an invitation to reach out to me if they ever need any help.
I also follow up with a thank you email the next day. Depending on the conversation, it may include some kind of asset or not.

What I have noticed from exploratory interviews,

people enjoy sharing their story,
talking about their careers and lives and
most people who will take the time to talk with you, genuinely want to connect, listen, and help however they can.
Also, prepare “your story”. I have noticed that many people who agree to talk to you will ask you about your story and where you are hoping to go.
It’s an informal conversation so enjoy it and treat as such.

Lani Haque

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!

My experience with Exploratory Interviews

What are exploratory interviews?