The Informational Interview is Dead
So, I get 3-4 requests each month to meet with individual people about the ins and outs of being an independent consultant, or about starting a business that I have some knowledge about.
The informational interview might have been invented by Richard Nelson Bolles, in the wonderful What Color is Your Parachute. The idea is, if someone has your dream job, you reach out and ask them if they’ll talk with you.
A good memory of an informational interview: great guy from Salomon Brothers sat down with me in the 1980s, and explained sales in a really accessible way.
I’m so sad that I don’t actually remember his name. Which is a little bit of the point. I didn’t go into bond sales. Beyond penning a thank you note, I never contacted him or saw him again.
The informational interview is a brilliant shortcut. It’s a pay-it-forward that depends on most of us liking to help other people. And, when we like our work, we probably enjoy talking about it.
The informational interview was a tool of the dawning of the modern economy, and “knowledge worker” roles. It was designed for people who had jobs, and people who wanted jobs. The win-win-win:
The person requesting the interview received a learning opportunity.
The person being interviewed had the opportunity to burnish her reputation, as well as her employer’s reputation – maybe to recruit talent, though the Bolles model is that the informational interview is not meant to be a stealth way for the requester to “ask” for a job.
The interchange built community. The guy from Salomon went to my undergrad university, and was on campus for a recruiting event. I’ve gone on to meet with many students and recent grads.
These wins break down in the post-employment economy.
The bond salesman had a job. He was being paid to talk with me.
When you work for yourself, you don’t get paid to be in an informational interview. Or for the time to commute to the meeting place, the requisite emails to schedule and confirm the meeting.
When you work for yourself, everything comes from doing your work. Your income, your reputation, and the opportunity to expand your sphere of influence. It’s all from doing the work. And from being good enough – and making yourself visible as such – that people will serve as your reference. Or sit down and talk with you about buying the services you’re offering.
This is something you’re not doing when talking with someone about how they might start their own business. (I’m also skeptical of the value of voluminous blogging. For me, at least.)
When I spend my time, it’s got to have intention. My family and close relationships. Targeted community service. Learning and self-care. And serving my clients and my business.
Life has given me lots of opportunity to think about this, as I’ve worked for myself couple of times, for more than 10 years. (Gasp.)
I’ve read blog posts and news stories with cringe-worthy titles like “No I won’t have coffee with you,” and “Now, a coffee meeting will cost you.”
I was dumbstruck as some people in one of my online communities called out the Kickstarter campaign of a high profile independent as unethical and wrong. (WTH?)
It’s easy to take potshots, when in fact the coffee-refusing-kickstartering independents are merely working out the same thing that I am trying to figure out. How can our work sustain our clients, our families, and ourselves?
I’ve discussed this with friends and fellow independent business owners. I’ve experimented with ringfencing my informational interviews to a very narrow time window. I’ve offered Q&A conference calls on “being an independent” at a nominal fee.
None of my endeavors has felt like a solution.
And in the meantime, a metric: one cost of 3-4 “informational interviews” is about one workday. It’s not smart for me to invest this kind of time on an endeavor that is not demonstrably helpful.
(I never went back to that bond salesman to say, “Here’s what happened!” And I don’t think I’ve ever gotten an unsolicited update from anyone I’ve talked with, either.)
Now, thanks to orbitalnyc, and the work of tinabeans and garychou, I have a solution.
At Ask Orbital, I join a number of other independents offering their knowledge to the world. Some are offering their core skills. Some are charging a fee. As one does, when independent.
At Ask Orbital, I’m offering my anti-skills* (h/t to nickgrossman there). These are services that I don’t really offer, for a fee that will support the community at Orbital.
I also told Gary and Tina – unbidden – that I’d write a blog post called, “Yes, We’re Charging for our Time. Here’s Why We’re Not @$$holes.“
This is it.
*(If you have questions on #management and my other core skills check me over here, and here.)
May, 2017 update: the experiment that was Ask Orbital is long gone, and I’m still not doing random coffee meetings. In the time since I wrote this post I’ve gotten so much better at identifying who I’m actually in the position to be able to offer support to. And better at saying “no” to those I’m not in a position to help. And I’m still not an @$$hole.
Photo: Coffee, by Mark Walker, via Flickr, under CC 2.0 license.
lol I’m reblogging myself -- I updated this post today and thought I’d repost it.
