Informational interviewing and networking.

Does anyone here have any particular wisdom, anecdotes, insight, etc., on the business of informational interviewing and networking? It's always the hardest part of any job search for me, and I'm finding I really need the extra push to get started in those areas. Thank you!

Alumni group for my Bus. School. THe problem is that most of them are

A: Only interested in helping people who can help them.

B: A bunch of rightwing fucktards (I have more talent in my little finger, but they have plenty of RW connections...)

I'm still working on this area and have found a lot has changed since the last time I did informational interviewing -- over 10 years ago!

I did the tutorial at the Quintessential Careers website and have been e-mailing first, then calling for contacts. There seem to be more layers than ever in order to get through to a living, breathing human being.

Basic website:

http://www.quintcareers.com

Their index of topics:

http://www.quintcareers.com/Career_Job-Search_A-Z_index.html

Their section on informational interviewing:

http://www.quintcareers.com/informational_interviewing.html

However, any additional insights would be appreciated.

there was an opening for a Japanese-English translator with a local corporation that offered a higher monthly salary than I am able to achieve most months, PLUS full benefits, so I decided to apply, just to see what would happen. (I didn't get the job.) However, when I looked at the company's website, I found a notice that said, "We do not encourage informational interviews."

This doesn't mean you couldn't arrange one individually with an employee who was amenable.

I did a series of them when I was a new Ph.D. trying to break into the corporate world in the early 1980s. What I learned was that the MBA was becoming a near prerequisite for getting anything above clerical work. Several people who had gotten their jobs as liberal arts B.A.s in the 1960s and 1970s told me that they would not be considered qualified for their own jobs (in 1982).

Fortunately, academic jobs began opening up, and I spent 11 years in academia before those opportunities dried up and I became a translator. Most of the "networking" I did initially as a translator consisted of attending the Association for Asian Studies convention and talking to the book vendors. After that, I joined an Internet mailing list for translators and gained a reputation as an intelligent participation in the discussions, which consisted mostly of requests for words that weren't in the dictionary, requests for explanations of contexts (say, for example, that someone who didn't know anything about ballet was assigned to translate the publicity blurb for a Japanese guest artist with an American ballet company), and problems in dealing with clients. After a couple of months, I started getting referrals from other translators.

Since then, I have networked further by attending as many of the international conventions as possible. However, the community of Japanese-English translators is fairly small, so after 13 years in the field, it's more a matter of touching base with old acquaintances and friends and meeting other people through them.