# Career Conversation Planner

**Time:** 20 minutes\
**Use it for:** Planning a respectful career-learning conversation with a clear purpose, useful questions, and follow-up.

Use the conversation to learn about someone’s work, daily responsibilities, and career path. Choose what you want to understand, prepare a few open questions, and agree on how much time they can offer.

## 1. Define what you want to learn

Choose one uncertainty that a person with relevant experience could help you understand. Do basic public research first so the conversation can go beyond facts available on an organization website.

- Role, field, or work setting you are exploring:\
  ________________________________________________________________
- What do you already know from public sources?\
  ________________________________________________________________
- One uncertainty you want this conversation to reduce:\
  ________________________________________________________________

## 2. Choose and invite thoughtfully

Start with people in your existing network, alumni communities, faculty, or introductions you receive. Make a brief request that says how you found them, why their perspective is relevant, and the modest amount of time you are requesting.

- Person and the connection or public context you share:\
  ________________________________________________________________
- Why is their perspective relevant?\
  ________________________________________________________________
- Your two-sentence request for a 20–30 minute conversation:\
  ________________________________________________________________\
  ________________________________________________________________

## 3. Choose your main questions

Prepare more questions than you expect to use, then prioritize four or five. Favor questions about the person's experience, daily work, tradeoffs, preparation, and advice. Let follow-up questions arise naturally.

1. What surprised you after entering this work?
2. Which skills do you use most often, and how did you build them?
3. What would you suggest I explore next to test my interest?
4. ______________________________________________________________
5. ______________________________________________________________

## 4. Record what you learned and follow up

Immediately afterward, record what you learned, what remains one person's perspective, and your next action. Send a brief thank-you. Ask permission before attributing, publishing, recording, or sharing anything they told you, and keep sensitive details private.

- Most useful takeaway and why:\
  ________________________________________________________________
- Claim to verify with another source or perspective:\
  ________________________________________________________________
- Thank-you detail and one concrete next action:\
  ________________________________________________________________

- [ ] I stated that the purpose was learning, not asking for a job.
- [ ] I stayed within the agreed time.
- [ ] I separated firsthand perspective from confirmed fact.
- [ ] I protected private details and checked sharing permission.
- [ ] I sent a specific, concise thank-you.

## Source

- UC Berkeley Career Engagement: [Informational Interviews](https://www.career.berkeley.edu/start-exploring/informational-interviews/)