I recently reached out to someone at the firm I will be interning at this summer to conduct an informational interview. My main goal was to figure out what I can start doing to prepare for my internship so that I can shorten the learning curve when I start. After I was out of questions I asked whether he/she had any questions for me. I immediately got a question I wasn’t prepared for and felt like I was once again in the interview chair and the pressure was on. Our conversation prior to this was pretty lax so when I was asked “what do you want out of this internship?” I froze for a second. A simple, strait forward question but also one that I felt could make or break the entire call. I ended up giving a spot on answer that he/she agreed with and the call ended on a great note…but what if I hadn’t given a favorable response? What if I completely shit the bed and this person started questioning the recruiting team’s decision to hire me? Then I’d be a step behind everyone else when I start this summer.
I thought having a chat with a team member could only help me because it would show that I’m being proactive. But when I was asked this question I immediately realized that I was treading on thin ice.
My point is this: only reach out to someone at the firm you'll be at if you’re confident that it will go well. And for God’s sake go over some of the basic Q&As you rambled off a million times during recruiting season so you don’t sound like an idiot.
What is everyone’s take on this topic? Have you been on either end of one of these phone calls? What do you think about having interns/first years reach out to team members prior to starting?
Thanks y’all and stay classy,
-- RB
