ous P.E.A.K.S. questions, you can probe with follow-up “why”questions,
such as the following:“Whyare people in this organization likely to give such importance to
this particular personal characteristic?”
“Whydo they feel that this kind of experience is particularly valuable
to have?”Get feedback on your Can-Do Portfolio, if it is ready to show.A good
time to get feedback on the latest draft of your Can-Do Portfolio is after
you have covered the key RJP and P.E.A.K.S. questions. Both you and
your interviewee will have fresh in your minds the key things that em-
ployers in your intended field are likely to be seeking in candidates.
Provided that you are not asking your interviewee to sift through
a huge pile of items, you should feel comfortable showing your inter-
viewee a select group of items that you are considering for inclusion in
your portfolio. What you are hoping to get is feedback from someone
who is in a position to know about which items are likely to be most im-
pressive and which documents you should probably leave home.
Explain to your interviewee that in an actual job interview, you
would probably show only a few of these items. And then ask her which
would be the best ones to try to show. As noted earlier, the odds are that
your interviewee will be intrigued by the fact that you have a portfolio
and will be very interested in taking a look at it.
Get feedback on your resume, if it is ready to show. As with drafts
of your targeted portfolio, you will also want to get feedback on your re-
sume. The key issue is to find out if it is properly targeted. Your inter-
viewee is unlikely to want to spend a lot of time editing your resume
line by line, but you can ask questions like these:“Will this resume help me get job interviews in the field we have been
discussing?”
“What sort of changes would you recommend that I make to improve
my chances of getting job interviews?”Finding Further Leads Stage
Although it is important not to appear to be asking your intervie-
wee for a job, it is entirely appropriate for you to ask in an informa-
tional interview what the interviewee thinks your next steps should be.
You might ask:“Is there anyone else that you think I should talk to?”
“How might I contact this person?”
“Is this a person I should call directly, or would you like to speak to
him first?”
“Can I use your name when contacting this person?”Finally, without saying or even implying that you want this person
to either give you a job or even help you get a job, it is perfectly appro-Chapter 4: Using Informational Interviews to Perfect Your Portfolio 57