'Informational Interview'- What's it actually?

'Informational Interview'- What's it actually?

I don't fully believe that, with just a few lines on this subject as given in my previous post, you got a clear idea on Information/al Interviews. Let me explain a little further on this critically important step in the career development process. 

What actually is this 'Informational Interview' in the contexts of higher education or career building? As I mentioned in my previous post, it's an interview conducted by a student or a job-seeker with an experienced person or persons of the university or industry of our choice. But why do we undertake such not an easy task to gather information about a program of study of a university or on the prospects of being employed by a particular company of our choice, whilst we have so many other risk-free sources of information already available elsewhere? Informational Interview can never be equal/led to any other means of sourcing information in the career building process.

For instance, I suppose you are a student looking for higher study opportunities and have already decided to pursue MBA (with some specialization/s of your choice). You have done all the usual search tasks generally carried out by an MBA aspirant and you know the basic requirements to get admission to the program in the three best institutes you have chosen at last. You have gathered the maximum information that internet could provide about these three institutes and most other sources of information like admission consultancy services in your area, Management entrance test preparation centres,  books, journals and periodicals that provide specific information on business schools, your teachers, general and academic library resources, your friends and their friends, etc. 

Still you have finally these three institutes and you are nearly unable to choose with confidence THAT INSTITUTE which is going to be your alma mater. You are yet to pin point THAT CAMPUS  you can be and have to be proud of being your spring board that launches you to the greatest echelons of your career success. Here you need a final push to take THAT DECISION and you can't trust anyone or any written source of information for that. You need the most reliable, most updated, most realistic, most futuristic, and precise and wisest remarks, opinions, suggestions, and advice and it can only be obtained from the horse's mouth, the horse trained from the same school where you seek to pursue your MBA. This puts you into the tracks that lead you to the brilliant alumni of your chosen schools. These people are sure to have a long story to tell you regarding their alma mater. Properly put in position, alumni of the immediate yesteryears are the BEST SOURCE OF INFORMATION for you about the school. They will tell you how the school helped them to be where they are now, and the experience, values, vision, and influence their school provided to their career building process. And, only a sincere alumnus, and never a professor or any other staff of the school, can be THAT PERFECT SOURCE. They will be able to explain you if you could do your MBA from that school and if the specialty/s that you consider are best taught there. They will tell you the prospects of all sorts. 

Similarly, if you are a job-seeker, the perfect source of information is a senior employee of the company/s of your choice. You need to find out the most suitable person of that company to be interviewed, and that depends on the position you have applied/selected with that company. If you are seeking a junior managerial position, you may best interview one of the senior managers of the firm who rose through the ranks in the same company. 

Informational Interview not only provides necessary clues that help you decide your school or program of study or future employer, the person you interview and the work place you visit can also show you the realistic visuals of your proposed study or employment. So, depending on the expanse of your interview, you are in effect experiencing certain core attributes of the course you are going to study there or sort of job you are likely to undertake once hired.