How To Use LinkedIn To Land Informational Interviews
This is the third and last article in my three-part series focusing on informational interviews. In the first two articles, “What is an Informational Interview?” and “How to Manage Your Time in a 30 Minute Informational Interview”, we examined the informational interview in micro detail.
In this article, we are going to focus on using LinkedIn to strategically land informational interviews.
Strategy
Before starting your LinkedIn search, determine your target companies or industries you are trying to network into and be strategic with your approach.
Start with reaching out and communicating with people you know who may be connected to your target companies or industries.
Starting with your immediate network will yield a higher conversion rate of landing informational interviews than random people you reach out to on LinkedIn.
Be comfortable reaching out to your peers, friends or family members to start with and then move onto your wider network like your college/university circle.
Leverage Your Education Network
Go to your education section of your profile and click into your school via the logo icon. Once you are on your school page, click the Alumni tab.
From here, you can search multiple ways including location, company name, job title or start year to find folks that align with your career interests.
Leveraging your education networks including high school and university connections are great ways to land informational interviews because you can start with a common denominator when you reach out to the person.
You can leverage your communal experience of going to the same school, majoring in the same area or being in the same student organization such as a fraternity or sorority.
Professionalism Tips
When reaching out to folks on LinkedIn, be brief and to the point and give all pertinent details at once. Be clear in what you are asking for in your message and include a social greeting and closing to your communication.
Always use professional titles until told otherwise and have a polished email signature when messaging on LinkedIn. Lastly, be careful with typos when emailing from your phone and double check/proofread all your communications.
The Expert’s Guide To Informational Interviewing eBook
A complete guide to having helpful networking conversations
Parting Words…
If you’re in any LinkedIn groups, you don’t need to be connected individually with people from the group in order to send a LinkedIn message. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
As long as you have a creative and compelling message communicating why you are reaching out, what you have in common and what you want, most people will reply.
Play the law of averages, the more you put out in terms of connecting with people or messaging people, the more that comes back to you and you will get conversions or yes’s. Be persistent and keep reaching out!
Related:
How To Manage Your Time In A 30 Minute Informational Interview
Why LinkedIn Isn’t Working For You: 4 Mistakes You Might Be Making Right Now
5 Tips To Elevating Your LinkedIn Profile Headline To Get Noticed Fast
Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
