25 Informational Interview Questions That Get Real Answers (2026)

An informational interview is the cheapest career research you will ever do. You get 30 minutes with someone already doing the job you are considering, and you get to ask them anything. The catch is that most people waste that half hour with surface-level questions and walk away with the LinkedIn version of the truth.

This guide covers 25 informational interview questions that pull more honest answers, organized into job, industry, and company buckets. Plus a short section on how to ask them, because the framing matters as much as the question.

What an informational interview is (and is not)

An informational interview is a casual, low-stakes conversation with someone working in a field, role, or company you are curious about. You are not asking for a job. You are asking for context: what the day-to-day actually looks like, where the politics are, what they wish they had known before they started.

The person on the other side of the call is doing you a favor. Respect their time, come prepared, and never bait-and-switch into asking for a referral in the first five minutes. The referral, if it comes, comes later, on its own.

How to ask the questions, not just what to ask

Before the question list, a quick word on framing. The same question gets a different answer depending on how you ask it.

Be specific. "What is it like to work in marketing?" is too broad. "What surprised you in your first six months as a marketing manager at a B2B SaaS company?" is something a person can actually answer.
Make it about them. Lead with their story. People are more honest when they get to talk about their own experience instead of generalizing.
Leave room for silence. The most useful answers come after the polite first answer. Pause for two beats and people will keep going.
Ask follow-ups. One sharp follow-up beats three generic questions.

Now the questions, broken into three groups.

11 questions about the job itself

1. Why did you choose this career path?

The honest answer to this question is rarely the LinkedIn answer. Press past "I have always loved X" and ask what specifically pulled them in. You learn whether the appeal is the work, the lifestyle, or the salary, which tells you what you might be signing up for.

2. What does a typical Tuesday look like?

Better than "a typical day," because Mondays and Fridays are weird everywhere. A typical Tuesday gets you the actual rhythm: how many meetings, how much heads-down work, how much firefighting.

3. What part of the job do you love?

The genuine answer here, not the polite one. If they have to think hard, that is information.

4. What part of the job did you not expect?

This is more useful than "what is the worst part," because it pulls out the surprises. The worst parts are usually visible from outside; the surprises are not.

5. What skills matter more than the job description suggests?

Most job descriptions are wrong about this. Salespeople will tell you the job is half writing. Engineers will tell you the job is half meetings. The honest answer reframes how you should be preparing.

6. What did you not know that you wish you had known starting out?

One of the highest-yield questions in any informational interview. Set them up to give you the warning they wish someone had given them.

7. What certifications or credentials are actually used, and which are theater?

You will hear that some certifications are non-negotiable and others are resume padding. Saves you a lot of time and money.

8. How much does an internship matter for breaking in?

Some industries weigh internships heavily, others not at all. Ask their honest read, then follow up with where to find them.

9. What is your biggest challenge right now in this role?

This question tells you what the job is like at their level. If the answer is "managing my manager's expectations," you have learned something about the company. If the answer is "keeping up with the technical curve," you have learned something about the field.

10. How demanding is the role, honestly?

The word "honestly" matters. Without it, you get the brochure answer.

11. What is a realistic salary range for this role at the 3 to 5 year mark?

Asking for the entry range can be awkward. Asking what someone with a few years of experience earns is more comfortable for both sides and usually more useful for your planning. You are also free to use sites like Levels.fyi or Payscale to triangulate the answer they give you.

8 questions about the industry

12. Why did you pick this industry over the obvious adjacent one?

This is sharper than "why this industry?" because it forces a real comparison. You learn what they considered and rejected.

13. What has actually changed in the last three years?

Pinning the timeframe forces a concrete answer instead of "the industry is always evolving." In 2026 you will hear AI in most answers; the interesting follow-up is how it has changed their day, not the industry.

14. What surprises outsiders about this field?

Same as the "what did you not expect" question, applied to the industry. Often pulls out the structural quirks: long sales cycles, regulatory weirdness, seasonal hiring patterns.

15. Why do people leave this field?

One of the most useful questions you can ask. Every field has a typical exit pattern; learning it tells you whether you can see yourself in that pattern.

16. What is the biggest threat to companies in this space right now?

You learn the structural pressure on the field: oversaturation, pricing collapse, regulatory tightening, AI displacement. Useful for picking a company that is not about to fall off a cliff.

17. How competitive is hiring right now, in your honest read?

Job market data is lagging and noisy. Someone in the field has live signal.

18. Is the industry hiring, hoarding, or shrinking?

Three different answers, three different strategies for breaking in. Hoarding fields (where companies hold headcount but rarely add) are harder to enter than growing ones, even if both look the same on paper.

19. Do you plan to stay in this industry for the next five years?

If they say no, ask why. Their reasons tell you what to watch for.

6 questions about the company

20. What does the interview process look like for someone at my level?

Maybe the single most actionable question of the conversation. They will tell you the rounds, the formats, who you will meet, and often what each interviewer is screening for.

21. Given my background, what would you flag as a gap if you saw my resume?

Risky to ask of a stranger. Useful to ask of someone an hour into a friendly conversation. The honest answer points you at the work to do.

22. How is the company doing financially, from where you sit?

Soft phrasing because nobody wants to badmouth their employer. "From where you sit" gives them an out and still gets you the read. Layoffs in the last year, hiring freezes, weird belt-tightening, all useful signals.

23. What does the company do well around burnout and workload?

Phrased positively because "do they cause burnout?" puts them on the spot. The honest answers reveal the culture.

24. Where is the company heading in the next two years?

You learn whether the strategy is clear and whether your interviewee can articulate it. Both signals matter.

25. What is something the company actually does well that does not show up in the marketing?

The most generous question of the bunch. People tend to be more honest about the good stuff when they have not been pitched on it.

Five tips for running the conversation

Come researched. Read their LinkedIn, glance at the company blog, look up their last podcast appearance if they have one. They will notice.
Ask before you take notes. A quick "do you mind if I take notes?" is polite and signals you are taking the conversation seriously.
Listen more than you talk. Your job is to extract their experience, not to pitch yours. Aim for 70/30 in their favor.
Save follow-up questions for the moment they appear. The best questions in any conversation are the ones the conversation suggests.
Send a short thank-you within 24 hours. One paragraph, mention something specific they said, and offer to return the favor someday. That is how informational interviews quietly turn into referrals six months later.

Final thoughts

An informational interview is not a job interview, but it is research that will sharpen every job interview that comes after it. Pick five or six questions from the list above, frame them around the person's actual experience, and leave room for the answers to surprise you.

If you walk out of one of these conversations realizing your resume is not telling the right story for the field you are heading into, that is a fixable problem. Our team rewrites resumes specifically for career pivots, with the focus on transferable wins. See our resume writing service when you are ready to make the next application count.

25 Informational Interview Questions That Actually Get You Useful Answers