Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
- Why it works: Generic questions ("What do you like about your job?") signal low preparation and produce generic answers. Questions about specific, non-public realities of the work — the actual daily texture, the common failure modes, the skills that surprised them as important — engage the person’s real expertise and produce information you genuinely couldn’t find elsewhere, which is the whole point.
- Evidence: Plausible mechanism, limited direct outcome data.
- Avoid: Asking questions that could have been answered by reading their company website — it signals you haven’t prepared and wastes a rare access window.
Why it works
Generic questions ("What do you like about your job?") signal low preparation and produce generic answers. Questions about specific, non-public realities of the work — the actual daily texture, the common failure modes, the skills that surprised them as important — engage the person’s real expertise and produce information you genuinely couldn’t find elsewhere, which is the whole point.
How to do it
- 1Do your homework first: read what’s publicly available about the role and field so you’re not wasting their time on facts.
- 2Prepare five to eight questions about things you genuinely can’t answer from public information: trade-offs they navigate, what they wish they’d known, how decisions actually get made.
- 3Include at least one question about failure or difficulty — it signals maturity and produces the most useful answers.
- 4Don’t ask for a job or a referral; if they offer, great, but it shouldn’t be your goal.
What the evidence says
MechanisticInformation acquired through direct conversation with practitioners is qualitatively richer than publicly available career data — this is the core premise of tacit knowledge research. The quality of questions determines the quality of that information.
Honest caveat: People answer questions honestly when they trust the context; an informational interview must feel safe (non-evaluative) for candid answers to emerge.
Common mistake
Asking questions that could have been answered by reading their company website — it signals you haven’t prepared and wastes a rare access window.
IX Coach reviews your question list before a conversation and pushes back on any that could be answered by a five-minute Google search.
Practice this with IX Coach →