How Informational Interviews Can Naturally Earn You Job Referrals

Most people think of referrals as a favor you ask for. But the best referrals aren't asked for at all. They're offered, freely and genuinely, because someone believes in you. And one of the most reliable paths to that kind of organic endorsement starts with a conversation that has nothing to do with asking for a job.

Informational interviews are wildly underused, and the people who do use them often approach them wrong. They treat them like stealth job applications, barely disguised pitches where the "Can I pick your brain?" email is really code for "Will you get me a job?" That approach rarely works. But when you treat informational interviews as genuine learning opportunities, something interesting happens: the people you talk to start rooting for you. They remember you. And when a position opens up, your name is the one they bring to their hiring manager.

Whether you're switching careers, breaking into a competitive industry, or simply don't have a ready-made network at your dream company, informational interviews give you a structured way to build authentic relationships that lead to referrals. And if you want to accelerate the process alongside your networking efforts, platforms like ReferMe let you request referrals directly from employees at thousands of companies, even before you've built those relationships from scratch.

Let's walk through exactly how to make this work, from finding the right people to talk to, crafting conversations that leave a lasting impression, and turning those conversations into referrals without ever feeling pushy.

Finding the Right People and Getting Them to Say Yes

The biggest barrier to informational interviews isn't the conversation itself. It's getting the conversation in the first place. Most people either reach out to the wrong person, write a message that gets ignored, or give up after one unanswered LinkedIn request. Here's how to stack the odds in your favor.

Identify People Worth Talking To

Not everyone at your target company is equally helpful for an informational interview. You want people who sit close enough to the work you're interested in to give you real insight, but who aren't so senior that your outreach feels presumptuous.

The sweet spot is usually someone one or two levels above the role you'd want. If you're aiming for a product marketing manager position, reach out to a senior product marketing manager or a director of product marketing. These people understand the day-to-day work, know what skills actually matter in practice, and often have direct influence over hiring decisions.

Here's where to look:

• LinkedIn is the obvious starting point. Search by company, then filter by role or department. Look for people who post content, engage in discussions, or have mutual connections with you.

• Company blogs and podcasts. Many companies feature employees in blog posts, webinars, or conference talks. These people have already demonstrated they enjoy sharing their expertise.

• Alumni networks. Shared school connections create an immediate bond. Most people feel a natural pull to help someone from their alma mater.

• Professional communities. Slack groups, Discord servers, subreddits, and industry meetups are goldmines. People who participate in community discussions are often open to conversations.

Craft an Outreach Message That Actually Gets Replies

Your first message is everything. It needs to be short, specific, and make the person feel like you chose them for a reason, not because they were one of fifty people you mass-messaged.

Here's a template that works:

Hi [Name], I came across your work on [specific project, post, or talk] and found your perspective on [specific topic] really interesting. I'm currently exploring roles in [area] and would love to hear about your experience at [Company]. Would you be open to a 20-minute conversation sometime in the next couple of weeks? Happy to work around your schedule.

A few rules for this message:

• Keep it under 100 words. Respect their time before they've even given you any.

• Reference something specific. This proves you've done your homework and aren't sending a template to everyone.

• Ask for 20 minutes, not 30. Twenty minutes feels like a small commitment. Once you're in conversation, it often goes longer naturally.

• Don't mention job openings. The moment you bring up a specific role, the dynamic shifts from conversation to pitch. Save that for later.

Expect a response rate of roughly 30-40% if your messages are personalized. That means for every five people you reach out to, you'll likely land one or two conversations. Don't take silence personally. People are busy, and your message might arrive at the wrong time.

What If You Don't Have Any Connections?

This is where many people feel stuck, especially introverts or career changers who don't have an established network in their target industry. The truth is, you don't need existing connections. You need a reason to connect.

Commenting thoughtfully on someone's LinkedIn posts for a few weeks before reaching out can dramatically increase your response rate. You become a familiar name instead of a stranger. Joining the same professional communities and contributing to discussions works the same way.

And for those moments when you want a more direct path, creating a free candidate profile on ReferMe connects you with employees who are already open to making referrals. It's a powerful complement to organic networking, especially when you're starting from zero.

Asking the Right Questions During the Conversation

You got the meeting. Now what? This is where most people either coast through with generic questions or panic and accidentally turn the conversation into a job pitch. Neither works. The goal is to ask questions that accomplish three things simultaneously: give you genuinely useful information, make the other person feel valued, and position you as someone worth remembering.

Questions That Reveal What You Can't Find Online

Skip any question that could be answered by reading the company's website or a Glassdoor review. Instead, focus on questions that tap into personal experience and opinion.

Here are the categories that consistently lead to the most valuable conversations:

Understanding the work:

• "What does a typical week look like for someone in your role?"

• "What's the most challenging part of your job that outsiders wouldn't expect?"

• "How do you measure success in your department?"

Understanding the culture:

• "What type of person tends to thrive on your team?"

• "How would you describe the decision-making process here?"

• "What's something you wish you'd known before joining?"

Understanding the opportunity landscape:

• "What skills or experiences do you think are most undervalued in candidates for roles like yours?"

• "How does internal mobility work at [Company]?"

• "Where do you see the biggest growth areas in your department?"

Notice that none of these questions are about you. They're about the other person's experience, knowledge, and opinions. People love talking about themselves and their work, especially when someone is genuinely curious.

The Art of Active Listening

Asking great questions only works if you actually listen to the answers. This sounds obvious, but in practice, most people are so focused on what to say next that they miss the golden moments in a conversation.

When your contact mentions a challenge their team is facing, that's a signal. When they describe a skill gap they see in candidates, that's an opening. When they share frustration about a process or tool, that's information you can reference later.

Take brief notes during the conversation (let them know you're doing so). After the call, write down the three most important things you learned. These details become the foundation for your follow-up, and they're what will separate you from the dozens of other people who've had similar conversations.

What Not to Do

There are a few conversation killers that will instantly shift the dynamic from "promising connection" to "awkward transaction":

• Don't ask them to refer you during the first conversation. Full stop. This is the single biggest mistake people make. You haven't earned it yet.

• Don't dominate the conversation. Follow the 70/30 rule. They should be talking 70% of the time.

• Don't overshare about your job search struggles. Brief context is fine. A ten-minute monologue about how hard your search has been is not.

• Don't go over time without permission. If you asked for 20 minutes, start wrapping up at 18 minutes. Say, "I want to be respectful of your time. I know we're coming up on 20 minutes." If they want to keep going, they will.

The most memorable informational interviews are the ones where the other person walks away feeling energized, not drained. When you make someone feel like an expert, like their insights matter, you create something far more powerful than a networking contact. You create an advocate.

Turning Conversations Into Referrals Without Asking

Here's the paradox at the heart of this entire strategy: the less you ask for a referral, the more likely you are to get one. The key is a deliberate follow-up process that keeps you visible, demonstrates your value, and makes referring you feel natural and effortless for the other person.

The Follow-Up That Changes Everything

Within 24 hours of your informational interview, send a thank-you message. Not a generic "Thanks for your time" email. A message that references something specific from your conversation and shows you actually absorbed what they said.

Here's an example:

Hi Sarah, thank you so much for sharing your experience on the data team at [Company]. Your point about the shift toward real-time analytics really opened my eyes. I actually spent some time after our call reading the paper you mentioned on streaming architectures. I'd love to stay in touch and hear how that project evolves. Thanks again for being so generous with your time.

This does several things. It proves you were listening. It shows initiative (you followed up on something they mentioned). And it opens the door to future contact without any pressure.

Stay Visible Without Being Annoying

After the initial thank-you, your goal is to show up in their awareness every few weeks in a way that adds value rather than asks for it. Here are specific ways to do this:

• Share a relevant article or resource. "Saw this and thought of our conversation about X."

• Congratulate them on wins. Promotions, company milestones, published work. Be genuine and specific.

• Update them on your progress. "Took your advice about learning SQL and just finished a project using it. Wanted to share because your suggestion really stuck with me."

• Engage with their content on LinkedIn. Like, comment, and share their posts. This keeps you visible with minimal effort.

The pattern here is consistent: you're giving, not taking. You're showing up as a thoughtful professional, not a needy job seeker. Over time, this builds something that no single cold outreach ever could: trust.

The Moment the Referral Happens Naturally

When you've had a great conversation, followed up meaningfully, and stayed in touch, something shifts. The person starts to see you not as a stranger who once asked for 20 minutes of their time, but as someone in their professional circle. Someone they know. Someone they've seen demonstrate curiosity, initiative, and follow-through.

So when a role opens up on their team and they get asked "Do you know anyone who might be good for this?", your name surfaces. Or they proactively send you a message: "Hey, we have an opening that made me think of you. Want me to put in a referral?"

This is the organic referral, and it carries far more weight than any cold application. Research from the Society for Human Resource Management consistently shows that referred candidates are hired faster and stay longer, and that hiring managers place significantly more trust in referrals from employees they know.

If you want to learn more about how to approach people you don't already know for referrals, this guide on earning referrals from strangers breaks down additional strategies that complement the informational interview approach.

Building a Repeatable System for Referral Networking

One informational interview is a conversation. A consistent practice of informational interviews is a career strategy. The people who get the most referrals aren't the ones who network in bursts when they're desperate for a job. They're the ones who build relationships continuously, even when they're happily employed.

Create a Simple Tracking System

You don't need complicated software. A simple spreadsheet works perfectly. Track:

Column

What to Record

Name

Contact's full name

Company & Role

Where they work and what they do

Date of Chat

When you had the informational interview

Key Takeaways

2-3 things you learned or discussed

Follow-Up Status

Last time you reached out

Next Action

What you'll do next and when

Review this tracker weekly. Set reminders to follow up with contacts you haven't engaged with in a month. The system keeps you accountable and prevents valuable connections from going cold.

Set a Sustainable Pace

Aim for two to three informational interviews per week during an active job search, or one to two per month when you're in maintenance mode. This cadence gives you enough touchpoints to build momentum without burning out.

Here's a simple weekly workflow:

• Send 5 outreach messages to new contacts

• Follow up with 2-3 people from previous conversations

• Engage with 3-5 contacts' social media content

• Conduct 1-2 informational interviews

• Update your tracking spreadsheet

Combine Organic and Accelerated Approaches

Informational interviews are powerful, but they take time. It might be weeks or months before a conversation turns into a referral. That's why the smartest job seekers combine organic relationship-building with more direct channels.

Signing up on ReferMe gives you immediate access to a marketplace where employees at over 5,000 companies are ready to refer qualified candidates. You can build genuine relationships through informational interviews while simultaneously using the platform to request referrals at companies where you don't yet have a warm connection.

Think of it as a two-track approach: the long game of relationship building and the faster lane of a purpose-built referral platform. Together, they cover every angle.

The bottom line is simple. Informational interviews work because they're rooted in genuine human connection. When you approach someone with real curiosity, listen deeply, follow up thoughtfully, and stay in touch consistently, referrals become a natural byproduct of the relationship. You stop chasing opportunities and start attracting them.

Your next step? Pick three people at companies you admire. Send each of them a personalized, 100-word message asking for 20 minutes of their time. Then show up, listen, and follow through. The referrals will follow.