3 reasons to do informational interviews, say career experts: They can make you ‘better at your job’

There is ample advice available about how to ace a job interview. Ask about priorities for the job. Show you have a growth mindset. Research both the company and the people you're interviewing with.

And while the importance of doing a job interview is well established, there is another type of interview worth considering that could also help build your career. That's the informational interview.

Informational interviews are informal chats that can happen any time and give you an opportunity to learn something within the world of work. They can be done with people at your company or others, at your level or higher up — whoever ultimately helps to fill that knowledge gap you reach out about. You can reach out to them via LinkedIn or email and take a couple of sentences to introduce yourself, say you'd love to have an informational interview about whatever you're interested in, and ask if they'd be open to a 20- or 30-minute coffee or phone chat.

Beyond just an opportunity to learn, doing an informational interview "helps you build relationships, it makes you better at your performance, it gives you increased visibility and exposure," says Angelina Darrisaw, career coach and founder and CEO of C-Suite Coach.

Here's how informational interviews can help propel you forward in your career.

Here are a few reasons to do an informational interview:

• To learn more about your company: "It increases your understanding of different business functions throughout the company" and gives you a broader lens of the organization, says Darrisaw, both of which can help you solve problems in a bigger way and ultimately make you "better at your job."

• To learn more about your industry: If you're doing an informational interview with someone outside of your company and in your industry, it can help you learn how different players function and work together to ultimately serve the needs of your customer base. It can also give you a sense of how other companies solve problems. "It's just a great tool to increase your understanding of your industry," says Darrisaw.

• To learn about a different industry: If you're curious how other industries function and are even considering making a career shift, doing informational interviews with people in these industries "can give you a broader perspective about the landscape" over there, says Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster. It can show you "what's happening in the industry, what's happening in the sector" so you can decide if it's really for you.

Don't go into an informational interview expecting a new job opportunity, think of it more as an opportunity to learn something that can help you develop professionally.

You could be exposed to a "new area of focus that you didn't previously know that you would be interested in," says Darrisaw. Someone could keep you in mind for future job openings at their organization. You could even find a mentor who's open to answering your questions down the line.

Whatever happens, in the worst-case scenario, you come out having learned something you didn't know before, which was your entire objective in booking the chat in the first place.

The best thing about informational interviews is they're pretty low stakes, says Darrisaw. "It's really just information sharing."

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