Informational Interview, part III

Just back from round two of informational interviewing with the same group I visited earlier this week. Today's meeting with the other Co-director went awesome!

I initially emailed this group two weeks ago, saw one Co-director earlier this week, and visited the other director today. The director I met with on Tuesday was the politician side of the center, today I met with the policy/academic director today.

The center was in a bit of a crisis when I arrived (3 minutes early, versus the 10 minutes I did on Tuesday). The co-director didn't have much time with me. We kept exactly to the thirty minutes I had requested. [2 points for Leadfoot.]

Despite the flusteriness of everything, I immediately felt comfortable with her. Partially because I already knew the center was laid back and cool, also because I knew she was the "academic" side of the center. The interview felt like being in my advisor's office before Advisor is about to teach--the Director was multitasking the whole time, but also listening very well. It was entirely familiar. Also, early on in our conversation she asked me where I was originally from. Coincidentally, she did an advanced degree in the city I grew up near. Our mutual love for HomeCity certainly didn't hurt anything.

She jumped right in with me, asking me about what I do, why I was visiting her, how I found out about them, etc. As a result, my carefully crafted intro went out the window, but all the prep I did with that was still good because I was able to quickly, and, mostly to the point, answer her questions. She asked if I had a resume with me. [Leadfoot totally had a resume! 5 points.]

I gave her my "policy" resume. I had my CV with me but it was clear that she only had time to read one page. Having now spent some time cleaning up both, I must say that resumes are way cooler. Why would anyone want to read seven pages about the stupid classes I've taught or all the dinky on-campus grants I've received, unless they were looking for a teacher or a grant writer? Resumes are to the point.

She asked a lot of questions about my dissertation research--what was my hypothesis, how did I do the research, did I have comparison sites, etc. Some of her questions were asking for more information and clarification--this indicated to me that I need to revise my resume to better explain that I really did live fulltime in Site for 12 months straight, and that I spent a lot of time hanging out with people on the ground. She said "being in the field" [i.e. talking to lots of different regular folks] is a major asset that I should highlight.

She actually seemed a bit impressed with my one publication (which hasn't been published yet). She asked about the editor, what the collected volume was about, etc.

As she was going through my resume she asked when I would be graduating. I explained that even though I wouldn't graduate until December, I was moving to City in July and that I was trying to put feelers out now in preparation for that relocation. I also told her that because I have little interest in teaching undergrads, I wanted to use my knowledge of State and research skills to make real changes. She was down with that.

I told her I didn't want to teach undergrads because 1) it's the truth, but also because 2) she would know better than anyone else in Center that academia is not hiring and there are lots of PhDs looking for temp jobs to tide them over till the academic market stabilizes (hahaha, as if that will ever happen). I made sure to say that I had "little interest" since I would certainly take a center job that had a teaching the public component to it.

She said that I needed to hone my "political sense". When I asked her how I do that, or rather, how do I demonstrate that on an resume, she said that from here on out I need to talk about my academic work in terms of how it applies to the real world. I asked her if I should try working for state government--she nixed that idea immediately. "State has no money, they wouldn't be able to pay you". I'm still unsure how to demonstrate my political sense exactly, but perhaps I'll come up with some ideas.

In the end, she said that I should call Center when I move to City. She said that State needs critical thinkers who can do research and synthesize material--i.e. the brain drain has left the State in a complete crisis. She seemed optimistic that I would find something. In fact, she sort of hinted that maybe in the summer they would have a need for me (or at least would need some kind of help). Nothing was stated explicitly, but she say that the center was going to do a review of goals and projects soon and that they may be taking on more projects in the future. She asked when I was moving and what my availability might be.

So even if she was not thinking of me specifically, she did seem optimistic that I might find something.

Lessons learned from this informational interview:

-Be ready to be interviewed. Although I wanted to ask questions about breaking into policy, she asked most of the questions. Many were job interview-y.

-Be ready to talk about dissertation/research in nontechnical terms. I definitely flubbed this and totally did the rambling grad student bit. Keep it succinct and brief. This is one of the cards I need work on. (At some Career Services talk I learned about developing answers to about 20 different common interview questions-- answers should cover all information within 30 seconds, or the amount of space you have on a 3x5 index card).

-Coincidences get you far. Our love for HomeCity was a definite plus. She almost went into anthropology/sociology but didn't--me being an ethnographer instead of a statistician was actually an asset for once. At the end of our interview she also told me that she was once offered a tenure tracked job at my PhD institution. We talked about Collegetown and the departments she would have hired into. She said that sometimes she wonders what would have happened if she had taken that job.

Overall, the informational interview went very well. I will definitely send her an email as soon as school is done to remind her I'm still around. In fact, even if absolutely nothing pans out from this week of interviewing, I think I can still contact folks at Center and ask for recommendations/help once I move to City. And, even though Director is way too busy to mentor me, I think she might be willing to let me shadow her or tag along to a few meetings/events.

Upshot of this week of informational interviewing? Informational interviews are awesome.