The Importance of Informational Interviews

I'm in my last semester now at Florida State University. I'm taking three courses this fall - Assessing Organizational Communication, Systems Thinking (which goes towards my project management certificate), and Analysis of Communication Theory. Over the summer I finished up Cases in Public Relations Management, Advanced Topics in Project Management, and Marketing Communication Managment (my capstone course). Taking a full load in the summer allows me to finish my master's degree a semester early.

I also have a meeting at Ron Sachs Communication (ranked in the top 100 public relations firms) next week. I met Mr. Ron Sachs a couple months ago, and he invited me to visit the office. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any internships left for the fall, but I will still go for an informational meeting to learn more about the agency and the work it does. I've done the same at Moore Consulting (also in the top 100) recently. Moore didn't have any openings either, but the internship director there has been quite helpful since then, passing my resume to some of his other contacts and informing me of other internship opportunities.

I have learned that informational meetings, while they do not carry the same weight (or stress) as a job interview, are invaluable for gaining insight into a company's work environment, processes, philosophy, and values. Such meetings are also great for networking (and hopefully opening some doors). I do not underestimate the value of informational meetings because you never know what opportunities they could lead to down the road.