Elon's Student Professional Development Center Career Advising professional offers Pro Tip: Using Informational Fact Sheets to Research and Prepare for Interviews and Informational Meetings.
By Taylor Brock, career advising fellow
I was beginning to think about applying for jobs. I began searching job websites shortly after Thanksgiving.
This may have been a little premature, but I knew I wanted to start early to make sure that I would find a job so I wouldn’t end up unemployed for a few months after I graduated with my master’s degree. What I found was there were so many different types of jobs that I could do with a degree in higher education working at a university. I began to feel overwhelmed.
I narrowed my search down to a particular functional area I was interested in as well as location. I knew I wanted to be on the East Coast, but I still applied to universities anywhere from Pennsylvania to Georgia. In the end, I applied to 25 jobs, mainly pursuing a job as a residential director.
Twenty-five jobs are a lot. How did I do it? How did I keep them all straight? I came up with the concept of informational fact sheets for each university I applied to. These fact sheets included any relevant information I could find on the institution, the department and the job.
I collected mission and vision statements as well as core values that were listed on the website. These fact sheets proved helpful when I was writing my cover letters. It is always important to include any information that is specific to the organization to which you are applying. In doing this you show that you are knowledgeable about the organization and prove you did not just send the same cover letter to all the place to which you applied.
After using the fact sheets to craft the cover letter, I reviewed them if I got an interview. If I moved on to the interview stage, I added questions I wanted to ask the interviewers as well as information I could find on the interviewer themselves. I would print the fact sheet out and have it with me for the interview. This way I could review my notes just minutes before I walked in and spoke with the people who were interviewing me.
Fact sheets are not just helpful when writing cover letters and during the interview process. They can be used for informational interviews as well. The information you include in the fact sheet for an informational interview is a little different from what you might include for the job search. For a fact sheet for an informational interview, you would include more information on the person you are speaking with, more so than the organization to which they are employed.
When making a fact sheet for an informational interview I often start by looking at the organization’s website on the staff list. There you will find the job title of the person and sometimes you can find a short biography about them. If you are lucky you can find links to articles they have written or articles that have been written about them. After you look at the organization’s website check out LinkedIn. There you can find more about their background including what degrees they have received and their past job history. Put any information you can find on the fact sheet. Once you have collected this information formulate questions based on what information you have found.
I always keep my fact sheets to remember who I spoke with and what questions I asked them. This is important especially if you have a second conversation with them; this way you can ensure that you do not ask the same questions or have the opportunity to expand upon what you asked previously.
Fact sheets are also helpful to look back on when you are writing thank you cards either to the people you interviewed with or the spoke with during an informational interview. These fact sheets can be used in all stages of the interviewing process from gaining a better understanding of your field during an informational interview, to writing a cover letter and the actual job interview. If you take time now, before the interview it will surely pay off in the end – with a job offer.