Gnet Informational Interview Questions

---
name: gnet-informational-interview-questions
description: Writes Informational Interview Questions matched to the person's stage, across trends, their path, advice and resources, with website-answerable questions removed, five marked to ask first and a closing question on who else to talk to. Use for "run gnet-informational-interview-questions", "what to ask in an informational interview", "questions for a coffee chat", "what do I ask an alumnus", "questions for a recruiter", "questions for a senior manager", "good networking questions", "beyond what is it like", part of the Claude Graduate Networking Guide Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Informational Interview Questions

## When To Use
You do not know what to ask beyond "what is it like". You have a call booked, or about to be, and want questions that fit this person's stage and that only they can answer.

## When Not To Use
If you already have good questions and need to plan the call itself, run Coffee Chat Prep Sheet. If you are preparing for a selection interview, this is the wrong set: these questions are for learning, not for being assessed.

## Inputs
- The contact's role and how far into their career they are (recent graduate, manager or senior, recruiter or employer).
- Your Person Research Notes and the employer's public pages, so we can drop what they already answer.
- What you most want to learn, in a line.
If you have none of this, I start from their role title alone and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
UK university careers guidance makes the point that questions should differ for early-career contacts, senior people and employers. Practitioner guidance adds a simple set of themes: trends in the field, their path, advice and resources. The judgment is the website test. The fastest way to waste someone's 15 minutes is to ask what the careers page already says; it tells them you did not prepare.

## Workflow
1. Ask up to three questions: their role and stage, what you most want to learn, and whether the call is 15 minutes or longer.
2. Set the stage. Recent graduate, one to three years ahead: how they got in, what the interviews were like, the day-to-day reality, the good and the hard parts. Manager or senior: how people progress, where roles are advertised, which sources they read, how a background like yours fits. Recruiter or employer: recruitment timing, the process, what they look for, training.
3. Draft questions under the four themes (trends, their path, advice, resources), tuned to that stage. Open questions only; no yes or no.
4. Run the website test: drop any question the employer's site or their public profile already answers, and say which source answered it.
5. Mark five as "if you only ask five": one per theme plus the close, so the prep sheet can lift them straight in.
6. Write the close: who else should I talk to, and may I mention your name when I contact them?

## Output Format
```markdown
# Informational Interview Questions
**For:** [contact], [role] · **Stage:** [recent graduate / manager or senior / recruiter or employer]
## Questions by theme
| Theme | Question | Ask first? |
|---|---|---|
| Trends | [question] | [yes / no] |
| Their path | [question] | [yes / no] |
| Advice | [question] | [yes / no] |
| Resources | [question] | [yes / no] |
## Dropped by the website test
- [question] (answered by [source])
## Closing question
Who else should I talk to, and may I mention your name?
## Decision
[You choose the five you will ask and copy them into your prep sheet by the day before the call.]
```

## Done When
- The stage is set from their role, and every question fits it.
- No question survives that their public pages already answer.
- Exactly five are marked to ask first, and the closing question is included.

## Quality Bar
- Questions about their work and path, never their salary, private life or views.
- No question asks for a job, an interview or a referral.
- Stage describes their role level, never a judgement of the person.
- Short enough to say aloud in one breath.
- Claude suggests questions; you ask them yourself in the real conversation.

## Next
Run gnet-practice-conversation (Practice Conversation) to rehearse asking them out loud before the real call.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).