The informational interview
By SuperdayReps · Michigan Ross Undergrad | Wharton MBA · ex-Citi | ex-Greenhill · Former Head Mentor at a Leading IB Prep Service
11 min read · updated September 13, 2026
Networking calls are awkward. You have no leverage, the person has limited time, and you are trying to sound intelligent and build some kind of rapport at the same time, in fifteen minutes, with a stranger. Nobody is good at their first one. Almost nobody is good at their fifth.
The most common way they fail is not nerves and it is not a lack of preparation. It is that the student fires off a list of questions, the banker answers each one, and the call ends with two people who have exchanged information and formed no relationship at all.
The reason the call turns into an interrogation is usually that you want the referral. Even unspoken, holding that in the back of your mind makes every question feel like it is building toward an ask, and people can feel a transactional conversation from a long way off.
Change what you are there for
Accept two things before you dial.
The referral, if it comes, is going to be a multi-stage process rather than the outcome of this one call. And it may not come at all.
What you definitely get, though, is fifteen minutes with somebody who does the job you are trying to get. That is worth having on its own. You get to find out what makes them tick, what their day is actually like, and, genuinely, whether this is a thing you want. Go in for that and the conversation relaxes, which is also the thing most likely to produce a referral later.
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Frequently asked
- What is an informational interview?
- A short, informal conversation with someone who does the job you want, usually ten to twenty minutes by phone or video. You are not being formally evaluated and there is no offer at the end, but the person forms an impression of you that can turn into a referral later.
- What questions should you ask in an informational interview?
- Ask about them, not just the industry. What got them into it, how recruiting has changed, the advice they would give their first-year self, a deal they are proud of, the best and most annoying part of the day to day. Open questions about the person produce a conversation. A list of factual questions about the firm produces an interrogation.
- Should you ask for a referral on a networking call?
- Not by default, and never as the purpose of the call. If the conversation has genuinely gone well and they have not raised it themselves, it can be reasonable to say you are interested in applying and ask. Two softer asks usually work better: whether you can come back with questions later, and whether there is anyone else they would suggest you speak to.
- How should you dress for an informational interview?
- Business formal unless they have said otherwise, and conservative. Showing up dressed noticeably more casually than the person across the table is uncomfortable for both of you, and it is a completely avoidable first impression.
- Can a networking call turn into technical questions?
- Assume it can. Where analysts and associates run the September and October coffee chats and the interview schedule is built from them, the chat is doing part of the job a first round used to do, and one technical question costs the interviewer nothing. Expect the light end: a high level DCF walkthrough, enterprise value against equity value, why a strategic might pay more than a sponsor, or a deal you have been following. If you do not know, say so and say how you would work it out. Bluffing is the only answer that really costs you.
- What should you do after a networking call?
- Write down what they suggested you do, then actually do it, then tell them you did. Following advice and reporting back is the single most reliable way to earn a second conversation, and it gives you a natural reason to write again.