Interviews can serve as a significant opportunity to enter a new phase of our lives. While the process of interviewing can be complicated on its own, asking for one can provide its own set of challenges. However, for those who want to take a more active role in their job search, requesting an interview yourself can be an invaluable tool.
Since we tend to think of interviews as something that companies offer us, though, it can feel strange to think of it the other way around. Thankfully, once you have the know-how of the right way to approach this process, you’ll be ready to put yourself out there. Keep reading our guide on how to ask for an interview for the details!
Job Interviews vs. Informational Interviews
One thing to keep in mind is that there are two distinct types of interviews you can request: job and informational.
Job interviews are the type that we most often think of, where a company calls us in and talks with us to determine if we’d be a good fit for the company or not. These interviews generally come after you’ve already applied for a position. Depending on the job, you may also need to go through several phases of interviews for one post before getting hired.
Informational interviews, on the other hand, are ones you initiate. Rather than trying to get a job, you would go into an informational interview, aiming to learn more about the company and specific aspects of the position. Generally, you would only conduct an informational interview once, but there may be particular circumstances where you could have regular follow up if your contact is willing.
Another core difference is who you would conduct these interviews with. For a job interview, you’ll often be talking to a hiring manager, a hiring committee, or someone else who will help make the final determination of whether you’ll get a position or not. While you can still talk to these people for an informational interview, there are other options.
Now that you understand the purpose of these two interview types, you might have already guessed that the ways to ask for them will differ. We’ll cover both individually, starting with the best way to ask for and approach an informational interview.
Asking for an Informational Interview
Because their nature is to help you with a better understanding of a company or job position, informational interviews can benefit you in several ways. Not only do they show that you’re willing to take the initiative to learn more about a company, but they can also help you determine if the workplace will be a good fit for you.
Even when positions are the same, different companies can handle the same job in different ways. With that in mind, an informational interview can give you an advantage in that you can get an idea of how well you’ll fit with a company before committing to an application. Talking with someone who works there can provide a wealth of information that you may not get otherwise.
Determining Who to Contact
Before you can ask for an informative interview, you need to know who you want to talk to for it. As mentioned above, you may speak to someone on the HR team, or you may discuss things with someone you already know who works for the company. Either way, it’s best to determine who specifically you plan to interview before reaching out.
Ideally, the best person to have an informational interview with is someone who is in a similar position to what you want to have. If they have more experience than just the entry-level position, too, that can be helpful as well. Even if you can’t find someone with the same position as you, talking with HR can give you plenty of useful information.
Often, you can find information on who would be best to reach out to on either the company website or through a professional social site like LinkedIn. These platforms can also give you an idea of how your contacts would prefer you reach out to them.
For companies that don’t list an HR number anywhere, you can call the business directly, then ask them to redirect you to Human Resources.
Reaching Out to a Contact
After you’ve decided who to reach out to, it’s time to do so. Whether you choose to do so through phone or email is up to you, as both can be effective means of reaching out. If you saw an indication of your contact’s preferred method, use that; you’ll be more likely to see a timely response that way.
No matter what option you decide to go with, be polite and respectful of the time of who you’re asking for help. After all, you’re asking for help, and your chosen contact likely has their own work responsibilities to take care of, aside from meeting your request. Even if an informational interview isn’t a guarantee of a job, the impression you make is essential.
Some elements you want to include in your request include:
- Thanking your contact for their time
- Introducing yourself
- Explaining that you’re interested in learning more about the company and the specific role
- Ask if it’s possible to have an informative conversation soon
- Providing your contact information
Because you want to be respectful of your contact’s time, you want to keep your request as brief as possible while still making your point clear. When sending an email, be sure to include all forms of professional contact information for yourself, including your email address and phone number. The goal is to make giving you a response as straightforward as possible.
Preparing Questions
When having an informational interview, you’re going to be the one responsible for asking questions. As such, it’s best to make it before you reach out to your contact. This way, you’ll be ready whenever you hear back. However, you want to be as intentional as possible with your questions.
Naturally, your questions should aim towards understanding more about the company you want to work for. However, you don’t want to spend time on subjects that you could have researched on your own. Most jobs will have a ready and waiting description of a position online—and, again, you don’t want to waste your contact’s time.
Instead, consider asking questions about:
- What does day to day life of working in the position look like?
- What do you consider some of the essential qualities necessary to excel in this position?
- What are the most significant opportunities this job offers?
- What are some of the biggest challenges of this position?
- What does the typical career path of this job look like?
- What do you like best about this company?
These sorts of questions will help you get a better picture of what working in the job looks like—way more than reading a job description will. Remember, this is more than just an opportunity to get your foot in the door. It’s a chance to learn if you’ll enjoy the work environment at this company, letting you make better career decisions.
Keeping questions like these in mind is helpful for the interview process as well.
Asking for a Job Interview
Of course, we don’t just want to stop learning more about a specific job position; we want to be a successful applicant as well. And for that to happen, we need to get ourselves into the interview stage. You may have excellent qualifications for a position, but that won’t matter if you can’t successfully make it in front of a hiring manager.
Overall, most of the tips for asking for an informative interview apply to ask for a job interview as well. However, there are some core differences, which we’ll be highlighting below.
Setting Up Your Cover Letter
While you could technically make a cold call to try and get into an interview, often, most of us go through the route of submitting a job application to an open position. And while some jobs don’t, most will ask for a cover letter along with your resume and other application materials.
Writing a cover letter is almost an art on its own, and there’s much more to it than we can cover in this article. However, there are multiple core elements to have, breaking up your letter into four sections: your qualifications; your other relevant skills; expressing your enthusiasm for working for a specific company; and your request for an interview.
For a job application to be successful, you want all pieces as tailored to the specific job and company as possible. In part, this customization is essential as many employers now use digital tools to review applications, such as algorithms that check for specific keywords and phrases to trim down submitted resumes. Additionally, your letter is an excellent way to show that you’ve done your research.
Some areas you want to look up before submitting an application and heading into an interview are:
- The company’s values
- Skills they want to see
- The type of clients the company serves, as well as products and services
A few well-crafted sentences can show that you’re willing to go the extra mile when it comes to applying for a job, and it can potentially make you stand out against other applicants.
Requesting an Interview
After you’ve crafted the rest of the major sections in your cover letter, you should include a few lines at the end, restating your interest in the position and that you’re looking forward to what comes next. Naturally, this closing section is the perfect place to include an interview request. A potential example would be:
“I’m excited about the opportunity to work with you and learn more about the position. I look forward to hearing from you soon.”
Of course, this isn’t the only phrasing that you can use, but it does get the job done. And, as we’ve mentioned before, you want to make it as simple as possible for a hiring manager to get ahold of you. Creating a header on your cover letter and resume with all your available contact options ensures that the HR department can contact you. You can also indicate which method is the best to reach you.
The core goal of this section of your cover letter is to make it clear that you’re aiming for the interview stage and beyond.
Even if an application doesn’t require a cover letter, including one so you can make your interview request in some form is helpful. Additionally, you can include such a message in other ways, such as when emailing a company the files they’ve asked for an application.
Following Up
In a perfect world, we’d automatically see responses from our interview requests—and they’d be positive, too. Sometimes, however, emails can become lost in the daily grind, and hiring managers have hundreds of applications to look over. Your request may fall to the wayside in everything else people have to handle.
Of course, if you haven’t heard back within a few days, that’s likely to be normal. If a few weeks have passed, on the other hand, that may be a sign that your interview request won’t receive a prompt answer. In these cases, it’s fine to perform a follow-up.
In a follow-up call or email, it’s your goal to remind your contact with your request or application. This message doesn’t need to be a complete resubmission of your initial message or cover letter, but instead a quick prompt that can remind your contact that you’ve already reached out once. They may have intended to respond to you, but it slipped their mind—and a little push may be all it takes to get a response.
As an example, you may write:
“Hi, I’m Jane Doe. I sent you a message regarding a potential informational interview last week, and I haven’t heard back. I’m very interested in learning more about this position, and I’d love to have the opportunity to chat with you about it soon. Please reach out to me when you have the chance to schedule me in. Thank you for your time.”
While you can change the wording (and you should tailor it to be specific to your position), the core sentiment is the same. Your goal is to be polite but forward, so you can make a good impression.
Visit Workplace
While not all jobs will make this possible, another way to follow up on an interview request is to visit the workplace directly. Again, you will need to be considerate of your contact’s time, but you can often make an impression this way as well. This approach can work exceptionally well with smaller businesses, where the owner is likely to be around and can see you directly.
If you plan to visit the workplace directly, complete all your interview preparation first—especially if you’re looking for an informative one, where you’ll be responsible for asking questions. Sometimes, your contact may be able to discuss with you on your visit, and you want to show that you’ve correctly prepared.
Of course, with the growing level of remote work, not all workplaces are easy to visit. Consider doing so if you can, but if not, a simple phone call or email can get the job done.
How Not to Ask for an Interview
So far, we’ve covered a lot of things that you want to do when requesting an interview. Of course, just as there are many positive things that you can do in your favor when asking, there are plenty of other things that you can hurt your chances of getting a positive response. To help you avoid that negative outcome, here are some things you shouldn’t do when requesting an interview.
Don’t Conduct Your Research Beforehand
In an informational interview, it’s critical to perform your research in advance. After all, you’re the one in charge of asking the questions and guiding the interaction, so you should do at least the necessary research to show your interest in the position.
That said, you should also do the proper research before you go in for a job interview as well. Just like having an informational session, sitting down with a hiring manager or team is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the job, even when you’re aiming to get hired. Many companies expect you to ask questions as well, and research can help with this process.
In addition to some of the points you’d want to research before looking for an informational interview, consider researching these things when prepping for a job interview:
- Information about your interviewer
- Key players in the company
- Hiring process and salary info (Accessible through sites like Glassdoor)
When in a job interview, it can be helpful to also ask about the next steps in the hiring process: what you can expect after you’ve completed your first interview.
Call for Follow Up if the Application Says Not to
Naturally, we’ve stressed the importance of following up, so we encourage you to do so when you can. However, not all companies have the time to process and respond to these types of messages, especially when they’re working through the hiring process. With that in mind, feel free to follow up—but not if the company indicates not to.
Generally, this information will be evident in the job application information or throughout the applying process. If you see a clear indication of the company’s policy, it’s best to follow it, just like the rest of the instructions on the application.
On the other hand, if you don’t see any indication of how the company feels about follow-ups, feel free to send one once at least a week has passed from your initial application.
Not Respect Your Contact’s Time
No matter what type of interview, your relation to your contact, or other aspects involved, you should always respect your contact’s time. HR members and staff members of a company alike have their responsibilities to take care of in their day. They don’t have an obligation to provide you with any responses.
Whoever you’re reaching out to is doing you a favor, so it’s essential to be respectful of their time—both when requesting a follow-up and when you go in for their interview. Research is an integral part of this process, but your language is critical too. Regularly express your gratitude for their help, and don’t get testy if you don’t get a follow-up response.
At the core, be polite and reasonable. You don’t want to act rudely and miss out on a significant opportunity.
Not Take Things Seriously
Lastly, whenever requesting an interview, you should make sure to take everything seriously. Whether it’s a job interview or an informative discussion, don’t ask for it if you don’t intend to pursue things further. Much like with respecting someone’s time, showing that you have an intent to follow through is essential to let your contact know that you recognize their involvement.
Additionally, if you’re heading into a job interview, only giving a half-hearted effort won’t reflect well on your chances to become hired. The same idea holds in an informational setting. There’s not much point to going out of your way for extra help if you’re not going to give it the time and effort necessary to get a good result.
Yes, not all interviews are going to end in a job. Not all informational interviews will end in getting work, either. But they’re still excellent opportunities to learn more about a company and its culture. You’re only going to get out of it as much as you put in. No sense in wasting the chance to gain more knowledge, especially if it’ll help you in your career path.
Benefits of Asking for an Interview
Directly asking for an interview isn’t the first thought for many of us, especially within the structure of the job application process. And, given how a company can hire an employee without a direct interview request, we may decide to dismiss it altogether. However, taking this course of action can have many benefits.
Overall, requesting an interview shows that you’re willing to take the extra step necessary. The same applies even with asking for an informational interview—you don’t need one to get a job, but you’re interested enough to take that extra step. Since not all applicants will go through this process, you can make yourself stand out with a simple request.
Additionally, asking for an informational interview gives you the chance to learn more about the job. Even if the role you want seems like your ideal on paper, you may discover that the company culture and values aren’t the same as yours, which could make work less fulfilling. Even further, after learning about the day to day processes of the job, you may realize it’s not right for you, saving time.
Benefits of Following Up with an Interview Request
Just like with taking the initiative to ask for an interview, following up on your request or job application is also an excellent move to make. By taking this approach, you can show your interest in the position. With a little persistence, you can get the results you want over time.
If you’re applying for and requesting several interviews at once, you may quickly lose track of who you contacted when. Building a job and interview spreadsheet with the relevant details (name of the company, name of the position, when you sent your initial request, the date you plan to follow up, and the name and contact information of who you reached out to) can help you stay organized.
Finally, following up on your initial request can be the reminder your contact or a hiring manager needs to reach back out to you. Though you want to make your follow-up request with consideration, sticking to it until you hear a definitive answer—whether that be yes or no—is well worth the possible avenues that it can open.
Wrapping Up
Like them or not, interviews are an essential part of the job application and hiring process. And while companies will call applicants in for interviews, you don’t have to take a passive role in the process.
Taking initiative and preparing for tasks are vital skills that many jobs want to see, and you can show them by requesting an interview. If you wish to ask a follow up for a job application or you’re interested in learning more about a company, knowing how to request talking with a contact can be a critical step in hearing back.
By following the steps and tips outlined in this guide, you’ll be in an excellent position to learn more. All that’s left to do is delve in, reach out to your contacts, and stay persistent moving forward.