How to ask for an informational interview
The request is four sentences and the conversation is fifteen minutes. Almost everything that goes wrong with it goes wrong in the first sentence, where people ask for the wrong thing.
By Jerry Feng, Growth at Happenstance. Updated August 28, 2026.
The short version
Ask in four sentences: the one question you want answered, how you came across them, fifteen minutes as the size of the ask, and two times you're free. Don't attach a resume and don't mention a job. The request works because it's small and specific, and because the person can say yes on their phone without opening a calendar.
Yes is more likely than you think it is
Most people send three of these a year rather than three a week because they expect to be turned down. They're wrong about that. Flynn and Lake's studies, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2008 and summarized by Berkeley's Greater Good in Action, found that “we tend to underestimate the chance of a positive response by up to 50 percent”. Across requests for directions, for a phone to borrow, and for donations, people said yes far more often than the askers had predicted.
The explanation is the useful part. You think about the burden you're creating: their calendar, their inbox, the fifteen minutes. They're thinking about how awkward it would be to refuse a specific person who asked politely for something small. You are weighing different things, and theirs weighs in your favor.
So make the request small and specific, and easy to refuse. A request that's hard to refuse gets you a reluctant yes or no reply at all. Four sentences to a stranger beats a page to somebody you half know.
Doing this with Happenstance
People cold-email strangers for these because nobody can search their own network by what people have done. Happenstance does exactly that. It reads seven accounts, from Gmail and Outlook through to Instagram, and makes the people in them searchable in plain English: ask “Who do I know who moved from agency work to an in-house design team?” and the answers arrive with the evidence attached, so you can tell the person you worked beside for a year from the one whose card you took.
Friends and groups pool networks, which matters here because the person best placed to answer your question is often one step past the edge of your own address book. Happenstance is free. The free plan is the whole product, with usage limits on chat and web searches beyond your network. Pro raises the limits: unlimited web searches and results, higher chat limits, and CSV export. What job seekers do with it is in Happenstance for job seekers.
Two versions of the ask
Use the top one when you have no route in at all, and the second when you reach the person through a shared connection, which is the version that gets answered. Both are under 120 words on purpose.
Template 1: no connection between you
Subject: Fifteen minutes on [moving in-house]?
Template 2: through someone you both know
Subject: [Priya] suggested I write to you
One line in template 2 does most of the work: naming who sent you in the first sentence. If that person offered to make the introduction themselves, take it, and read how to ask for a warm introduction first so the ask doesn't cost them anything awkward. If these conversations are part of a wider search rather than one-offs, how to network your way into a job has the sequence they belong in.
What to do in the fifteen minutes
Open with the question you put in the email, because that's the question they said yes to and they've had time to think about it. Ask at most three things, all about their experience rather than your candidacy. Let the answers run. Stop at fifteen minutes even if it's going well, and close by asking who else they think you should talk to. Send a one-line note the same day naming the thing you will do differently because of the conversation.
What Happenstance can see
Email is read as headers only. Message content and attachments never reach our servers. Yes. Your connections are searchable only by you, the friends you accept, and the groups you join, and sharing is always mutual. Your public profile shows a constellation of named people you know by default, which you can turn off anytime. We never share, sell, or use your data to train AI models. Happenstance is SOC 2 certified and DTI Trust Level 2; the full list of what is stored and for how long is on the security page.
Frequently asked questions
How do you ask someone for an informational interview?
In writing, in four sentences, with one question in the first of them. Say what you want to understand, how you found them, that you're asking for fifteen minutes, and give two windows you can do. The more specific the question, the easier it's to answer, which is why vague requests to pick someone's brain get ignored.
What do you write in an informational interview email?
One line that shows you read something they wrote or did, one question you cannot answer from the internet, the length you're asking for, and two times. Keep it under 120 words. Anything longer reads like a cover letter, and a cover letter invites the reader to evaluate you rather than answer you.
Is it okay to ask for an informational interview on LinkedIn?
Yes, and for people you have no other route to, it's often the only option. Send it as a note with the connection request or as a message if you're already connected. Email tends to get better replies when you can find the address, because LinkedIn messages sit unread for weeks in busy inboxes.
What questions should I ask in an informational interview?
Three, and all of them about their experience rather than your candidacy. What surprised them about the move into this work, what a normal week looks like, and what they would want to know if they were where you are now. Questions with a factual answer produce better conversations than questions that ask for advice in general.
Should you ask for a job in an informational interview?
No. The conversation you asked for is the one you should have, and turning it into an application at minute twelve is what makes people stop taking these. If a role comes up, they'll raise it. What you can ask at the end is who else they think you should talk to.
What do you do after an informational interview?
Send a short note the same day that names one thing you're doing differently because of the conversation, and send anything you promised to send. Then come back once, months later, with what happened. That second message is the one that turns a stranger into someone who forwards you a role before it's posted.
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