Informational Interview Questions and Answers

Last updated on Feb 06, 2023
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Informational Interview Questions

Before moving out to the further details, let us tell you one thing more clearly than informational interview questions don't need to be only for your job interview. These questions can be asked to you anywhere especially when you are meeting someone for your career advice, or someone whose job you admire the most.

We will be covering most of the common questions to ask in an information interview. That will cover your career option and the way how you are progressing on it and planning to achieve your career goals. Some questions may be about your personal preferences that include your strengths or weaknesses but majorly focusing on your career side.

Questions to ask in an Informational Interview

Here in this article, we will be listing frequently asked Informational Interview Questions and Answers with the belief that they will be helpful for you to gain higher marks. Also, to let you know that this article has been written under the guidance of industry professionals and covered all the current competencies.

Q1. What is the fastest-growing field in information technology?
Answer

All the fields in information technology are growing faster these days. The world is becoming dependent on the people of information technology and on the tools and software’s made by them. Out of all, I think Python, Node.js, React.js is the best field as this is the coding language which is being used for almost all the latest applications out there in the market.

Q2. What's the greatest challenge your department faces?
Answer

This question is asked to you to know about how active you are in your job. This is highly recommended you know about the industry trends and then compare them with your department in the organization and see if they are also meeting the standards or facing some challenges.

questions to ask in an informational interview
Read on this article if you are wondering what informational questions might be asked to you in your interview. This will help you in preparing yourself for your upcoming interviews.
Q3. What are the greatest pressures, strains, or anxieties in the work?
Answer

These things depend on how you take or manage the work. It is very important to maintain a work-life balance. The greatest pressures are always the client pressure and the concerns to meet the deadlines; this sometimes results in strains. On the other hand, it is important to have such pressures at some level to keep the organization or people organized.

Q4. What's the biggest challenge for your job?
Answer

The reason behind asking this is not to know about the problems you faced. It is more about knowing the way you cater to them. Whether these challenges excite you to kick you or they sound horrible to you?

It would be great if you can share some live examples here.

Q5. What's the most important preparation for a role like yours?
Answer

It will depend on the role to role, the answer cannot be static to this question. But the simplest and dynamic answer can be “Dedication”. This is something that every role needs and if someone has that level of dedication they can achieve the best in their role.

questions to ask in an informational interview
Do not worry about the questions to ask during an informational interview. All these questions will be based on your resume so make sure to read your resume twice or thrice before the interview; so that it won’t look like you are not prepared for the interview.
Q6. What skills do you think are most important for someone interested in a job like yours?
Answer

It would be great if you keep yourself updated with the industry trends. While answering anyone to this question, you should know the role you are working in. Otherwise, you will end up with the skills or tools that you are currently working upon, and keep this thing in mind that these are not the only tools that every organization is using. To achieve a single task there are several tools out there.

Q7. Is this a rapidly growing field? Is it possible to predict the future needs of workers in this field?
Answer

Though the answer to this question depends on which field you are working in. However, you have to make sure you are telling all the good things about the field and your focus should be on telling more about how it is growing and helping the industry.

The future needs of workers can be predicted by concerning all the possible factors around the organization and industry for any field. It all depends on how the company makes its plans.

Q8. What's the biggest downside of your job?
Answer

The downside reason will depend on the domain and your personal preferences. The only thing we would recommend you is whenever answering this question make sure you are not keeping your problems above your job. Also, your answers shouldn’t feel demotivated to others who are willing to work in the same domain.

Q9. How would you describe the perfect person for this job?
Answer

Here, if you are keeping someone else above yourself then you are raising the question to your capabilities that “why are you here?” Always mention the good to have qualities for this job and at the end

questions to ask in an informational interview
Be confident and make sure to keep eye contact with all the interviewers in the panel. This will help them in finding the confidence level in you and making you the best choice among others.
Q10. What are some big projects you’re working on now or that you’ve finished up in the last few months?
Answer

Projects are something that keeps the job interesting for any individual. Make sure to share all the recent projects on which you have worked upon in recent times. Do share your likes or dislikes. It would be great if you can mention a few things about your project because of which you have learned a lot, telling this will help in demonstrating that you are excited to take new opportunities.

Questions to ask during an informational interview

Here are some broad questions that should function well by paying little mind to the business or the individual's professional background. Simply ensure that they're applicable to the individual by doing intensive research on their work ahead of time.

  • What current projects are you working on?
  • What's the greatest challenge your department faces?
  • What skills do you think are most important for someone interested in a job like yours?
  • What do you enjoy most about the work you do?
  • Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
  • Do you have any recommendations for other people I should talk to or other resources I should explore?
  • Are there any questions I'm not asking that I should be?
The important thing to remember:

Before signing off, we just want to let you know that the informational interview questions do not take more than 20-25 minutes. So this is the only time where you can figure out how you can fit yourself. Listen to the question carefully and think twice before answering any question, as you have limited time to create your space!

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