Sources for Information Interviews (1st Week): LinkedIn
Informational Interview contact name sources: LinkedIn
What are Informational Interviews?
Informational Interviews can be an effective way to learn about a profession.
An Informational Interview where you contact a person in a profession you are interested in learning more about. You contact the person and learn about the profession.
This 5- part series will inform you where you can find contact names for informational interviews.
We have scheduled the rest of the posts to appear on the remaining Wednesdays for October.
For this week, a resource for finding contact names for informational interviews is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is a social media networking site that allows you to connect with other professionals.
You may find contact names on LinkedIn for informational interviews.
You need to login and create an account (a profile) to use the LinkedIn resources.
There is a search box in the left corner of the screen. In it, you can search for a profession for which you want to find contact names.
It would help if you typed in a profession of interest in the Search Screen Box in the Left Corner of the Screen (This post gives the viewpoint from a laptop computer screen; a mobile device looking at LinkedIn may have different views than what may appear on a laptop computer screen.)
You will (hopefully) get a result of a variety of information.
If you want to contact people, you will have options on the left side of the screen to narrow your search to people.
Select “people.”
Hopefully, you will see a list of people you are interested in.
How many connections you already have for your profile may influence your list. The more connections you have, the more people you will get.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Provides groups that are another way to find contact names.
LinkedIn Groups are groups of people who gather on LinkedIn around a specific area; many of these particular areas are professions.
You can use the search box in the left-hand corner to search for the profession you are interested in.
You will (hopefully) get information from your search.
You will then get (hopefully) a choice on the left side of the screen called “groups”.
Select groups, and you will (hopefully) get a list of groups based on the profession of interest.
When you select a group, you can get a list of members of that LinkedIn Group. You can (hopefully) select a LinkedIn group based on a particular profession; you will also likely get a list of LinkedIn contacts of people in that profession or those interested in that profession. People who may be an excellent source for information interview contacts.
Connections–way to contact
You may face limitations in communicating with a LinkedIn contact who does not have a connection with you. It may prove helpful to be connected to the person you want to do an informational interview with.
You can ask the contact if they would connect with you.
In the request to connect, you may leave a personal message.
I recommend writing a personal message; you may also include in the message that you would like to request an informational interview.
You may increase the likelihood of your contact connecting with you if you mention something that you have in common between you and the contact. Some examples of something in common could be that you and your contact are members of the same college or university alumni, the same LinkedIn group, or the members who live in the same geographical area.
After the contact connects with you, you can send a message asking for an informational interview or ask the connection for one.
LinkedIn may be an effective source for finding contact names for informational interviews.