Before you go out and try to schedule any informational interviews, you need to identify the industries you are going to focus on and develop a list of companies where you might find opportunities. And before you contact anyone, you will need to do some research on the companies and industries you're going to be trying to reach.
We have already talked about using published sources of information to conduct research. We went over this before so you could start getting some ideas about the world-of-work and the range of opportunities. You are going to need to keep doing this again, this time focusing on specific companies and specific jobs.
Your Career Chart is your guide for finding the types of companies you want to reach. As you do research on those companies and the jobs available, you may need to go back and revise your Career Chart. You might also need to revise your Career Chart after you conduct informational interviews and gather information.
Make sure you do your research before you actually go visit anyone. Yes, you are going to be doing informational interviews in order to gather information, but your questions will seem smarter and you will seem better prepared to take on a job in the field you are targeting if you already know a fair amount. You don't want someone you interview to think that you are someone who needs to start at square one!
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