Megan Riksen:

Hello and welcome to the work like Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen, and today I'm joined by Brian Bossick. So Brian, have you ever done an informational interview?

Brian Bossick:

Ooh, Megan, that's a great question and yes, but I didn't know I was, so, I, I think that's the inter one of, uh, my professors in college, um, taught a Counseling class and he also worked at our local Counseling Center and I remember just asking about his job and then natural questions followed and had no idea it was an info interview, but that's totally what it

Megan Riksen:

Turned out to be. Yeah, that's actually like ideal. That's even better. Cuz then you didn't like get stressed or nervous about it. You just started asking questions. Yeah.

Brian Bossick:

Then it felt really natural. Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

Awesome. Good. So today we'll obviously be talking about the topic of informational interviewing and you may not have heard that formal term before, but Yeah. Kind of like Brian's situation, it's, it's likely that you've done some form of this in the past because essentially we're just saying an informational interview is talking to someone about their professional experience or career path. So this can happen in a formal way where you actually are reaching out to someone, setting up a time to connect you prepare some questions. It could also just be a casual conversation where you're able to just, you know, kind of weave in some of those career questions that you might have. And I think either way is great and effective.

Brian Bossick:

Absolutely. And you know, it's interesting, I, I think as we work with students and as you may be out there researching jobs and career options right now, you can find a lot online and there's some great information. Yes. Right. But, but it's also static, like it stops mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you may have a follow up question and you can't find that. Yep. Right. And it's not on Google and things may be presented a certain way that you wonder if it's accurate. So that is really one of the beauties of informational interviewing is you can follow up on your natural leads mm-hmm. <affirmative> and natural questions and you get I think a real day in the life kind of feel that is sometimes really hard to get from the written page.

Megan Riksen:

Definitely, definitely. Yeah. Reading things, I think it's a great starting point and it's a great way maybe to do some research before your informational interview. Um, but yeah, gosh, when I've, I mean any conversation you have, it brings something to life way more than reading on the internet can do.

Brian Bossick:

Absolutely. And I, and I think most professionals are really honest about what their job is like and are excited to give back. Right. They're excited to talk to you about their experiences and what they've done. Yes,

Megan Riksen:

Absolutely. So to help us with this topic, we have a very special guest. Um, her name is Mackenzie Payton. She is an undergraduate student here at GVSU. Um, so we're gonna throw it over to her for a few questions. All right. Mackenzie, can you tell us about yourself and your plans for after graduation?

MacKenzie Payton:

Hi, my name is Mackenzie Payton and I'm a senior at GVSU pursuing a double major in advertising and public relations and psychology. I've worked for the Career Center for almost three years now and held two positions as a marketing and communications intern as well as a career connector. Currently I work as a career connector and I work with students in the Allendale and downtown office. My potential plans after graduation are to work in a fulltime position, hopefully in a field related to research or strategy. And eventually I would love the opportunity to go back to school to get my Masters in industrial organizational psychology. So IO Psych or organizational behavior.

Megan Riksen:

That's awesome. Sounds like a great plan to me.

Brian Bossick:

It really does. And it, it's really interesting too cause I think it, it, you know, it sounds like you are building, like moving from one thing to the next and where do I wanna go with this. And it taps into that idea that our career is always evolving.

Megan Riksen:

Totally. Okay. Yeah, agreed.

Brian Bossick:

All right Mackenzie. So for question number two, can you tell us how informational interviewing has been helpful with some career exploration outcomes for you?

MacKenzie Payton:

So I've done a handful of informational interviews during my time at GV and they've definitely helped me a lot in terms of career exploration, professional development, and overall networking. I remember my first informational interview was my sophomore year and I was super nervous to send that first cold call message on LinkedIn, but I'm so glad that I did. This individual was an alumni from the a NPR program and they were currently working at a ad agency that I was very interested in applying for their summer internship program. So through this conversation I learned a lot about kind of the agency as well as the company culture. My most recent informational interview was with a professor at Seidman and he has a PhD in IO psych. So this is a field I'm very interested in pursuing. So when I reached out to him, I had the opportunity to learn kind of how I could leverage my double major, what other clubs or student organizations I could join that would look good on my resume and resources for applying to grad school. Overall, I would say that I've had nothing but positive outcomes from informational interviewing because it allowed me to expand my network as well as become more knowledgeable about an industry or industries that I was interested in at the time.

Megan Riksen:

Wow, great job. <laugh>, multiple informational interviews sounds like they've really helped you.

Brian Bossick:

Yeah. And it really sounds like you could take both the positives and then like and and also the things that didn't fit as well. Absolutely. It really helped. That's fantastic. Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

Great work. Yeah. All right, next question. How do you initiate a conversation with professionals? How do you then stay connected with the people you've spoken to and why is doing informational interviews important to you in the first place?

MacKenzie Payton:

I typically use LinkedIn to reach out to professionals and a tip that I always tell students is that LinkedIn is gonna be your best friend in terms of professional development and networking. So LinkedIn is a website with infinite resources beyond applying for jobs and you can get super savvy with the filtering system, especially when you find a dream company or a company that you're interested in working for and you can filter through employees. So this is the opportunity to find alumni or people who are in the role that you want and you can reach out directly to them. I will always start the conversation as soon as I connect with them and this is a pre-typed out message that I have saved in my notes app on my phone. And it's something along the lines of, hi, my name is Mackenzie Payton, I am a senior at GVSU pursuing a degree in X, Y and z.

MacKenzie Payton:

I came across your profile on LinkedIn and would love to connect to learn more about your role at X company. Always end with a thank you. And once you are connected, depending on how busy this professional is, it's always good to follow up again because they may not see your original message, they may just see that you wanna connect with them. So another good tip I always recommend to students is that there are so many articles and so many different websites that are kind of dedicated to crafting the perfect LinkedIn cold call. So figure out what works best for you and if you are copying and pasting your message, make sure the person's name is spelled correctly and that all your info is relevant. I've learned that small details definitely make a huge difference once you successfully schedule an interview and you kind of make a time to meet, whether that be over teams zoom or in person, always come prepared with questions and if you can orchestrate the conversation in a way that you can maybe ask them to review your resume or ask for another person you think you would benefit from connecting with, that's always great.

MacKenzie Payton:

And I would say my biggest tip again, is to always follow up with a sincere thank you. So if you had the opportunity to snag their email during the interview process, you can message them there or message them on LinkedIn, just, you know, thank them for taking the time to meet with you and for providing the insight and information that they did because at the end of the day, this is a busy professional who took maybe 20 or 30 minutes out of their day to kind of chat with you. And it's always great to be respectful in terms of staying connected, you know, reacting slash commenting on their posts on LinkedIn if they're meaningful to you and allowing check-ins when appropriate. So whether that be a thank you so much, I got the job message or something along those lines, remaining connected is super important because this could be someone who got you your dream job or provided wisdom in a time where you really needed it. So remaining kind and courteous kindness definitely goes a long way.

Brian Bossick:

I love it. That is great information and great tips. It is. I I and I really like you mentioned too, using the resources that are out there, um, as you're putting together the perfect outreach or response, cuz why, why not build upon expertise of others and then add your own touch to, to that.

Megan Riksen:

Exactly. Love it. So good.

Brian Bossick:

Okay, Mackenzie for question four, and I've got three parts for this one, so hang in there. All right. Can you tell us, um, noteworthy pieces of information you may have learned from informational interviewing? It's part one, uh, part two, any suggestions of questions that you might ask, uh, when you're conducting an informational interview? And then part three, um, tips on making connections with professionals and what helps to do that.

MacKenzie Payton:

So I have three tips and my first would be, one, be genuine and authentic. It's very clear to see someone who's just chatting with you to find out, you know, like who their hiring manager is versus having a genuine interest in the role or the company or company culture. And, you know, remaining present in that conversation is super important and not thinking of the next thing you're gonna say or question you're gonna ask, and making sure the dialogue, you know, is natural. My second tip would be invite curiosity into your time with informational interviewing. You know, this is a time where you can explore every major, every minor, every potential career path. And being open-minded and recognizing that your path could and probably will change from the time you enter college until when you graduate is totally okay and completely normal. I personally changed my major a lot and change career paths a lot.

MacKenzie Payton:

And so many members of our career center staff have heard me have the craziest conversations with people just because I am so curious, you know, about what the world has to offer and the potential career paths I can have with my degrees. My third tip is the worst someone will do is say no. And the best you can do is say yes. So I recognize that putting yourself out there can be super scary, especially if you haven't done this before, but it can lead to some incredible outcomes and opportunities. You know, this one informational interview can lead to a coffee chat, which could lead to a company tour, which could lead to a meeting with the hiring manager or an HR manager. And that is just one step closer to landing your dream job. I also think it's important to recognize that since you are kind of just sending your message into the LinkedIn void, if a person you know reads your message doesn't reply or doesn't reply at all, it's no sweat off your back, right?

MacKenzie Payton:

The stakes are so low, but you could gain so much from this one small thing. All of my informational interviewing questions I have carefully curated from dozens of websites that I have done some research on, but I'll give you my top three. So the first one is, how did you end up in this role? Or could you tell me a little bit about your journey into this industry? This is a pretty open-ended question because the employee or whoever you're talking to will typically talk about past experiences before they landed this role. Um, and that's a, a great opportunity to learn more about them and connect with them on a deeper level. My second question is, what is it like working for the company? And this is a great way to see if the company culture is a good fit for you. If you are passionate about, um, something along the lines of sustainability or DEI, you know, it's really interesting to see does the company culture reflect what is put on their website or maybe like the pillars or the ethos of their company?

MacKenzie Payton:

And my third question is, is there anything that you recommend that I do to strengthen my potential candidacy? If I were to apply this gives the individual the opportunity to recommend maybe clubs or student orgs that they pursued in college or wherever they went to school, um, trade magazines as well as podcasts. I think that's been the most interesting piece of advice for me, talking with mentors and informational interviewing. I've learned that there are a lot of podcasts or books that you could be reading to kind of holistically, uh, round out your application process. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast and allowing me to share my wisdom. And I hope that some of these tips or potential questions are relevant and helpful for you on your, um, career journey. Come visit me if you wanna chat more in person.

Megan Riksen:

Awesome. Thank you Mackenzie. I, I mean you did a fabulous job. I don't have much more to say.

Brian Bossick:

I don't either. I think you covered so many things, great tips, great experiences, and thank you for your time and thoughtful answers. Yes, that was fantastic.

Megan Riksen:

And sharing those, those real life experiences is super helpful. So any final thoughts Mackenzie?

MacKenzie Payton:

I definitely wanna give a shameless plug to the Career Center. So as a career connector, we are students to peer advisors and we help with all forms of professional development. So we review resumes, cover letters, hold mock interviews, as well as help with informational interviewing. So if you're hesitant to reach out or make that first cold call, definitely stop into our office and all of our staff would be more than happy to help you out.

Megan Riksen:

So true. We're here for you. So to summarize what we've been talking about and informational interview is a conversation with a professional in the field. Um, you're gonna gain something new, you're gonna gain a professional contact, you're gonna get some information that's gonna help you move forward in your career decision making. And yeah, as Mackenzie said, and Brian professionals are usually excited to share their story and help somebody else. And you can even think about how one day you might be the one who's able to kind of pay it back to a student.

Brian Bossick:

Absolutely. And you know, one thing Mackenzie also said was that the risk or the reward that you can gain from reaching out is so much greater than the risk of just somebody not replying. Exactly. So go out there, send a message, see what happens.

Megan Riksen:

See what happens. I love it. Okay. Thank you so much to everyone for listening and we hope you tune in to a future episode soon.