Informational Interviews

The case for career readiness has never been more urgent. The World Economic Forum reports that nearly 40% of employers worldwide struggle to find entry-level workers with the skills needed to succeed in a modern economy. The problem isn't effort; it's exposure. Students are graduating without ever having a real conversation with a professional in a field they're curious about. That changes this fall.

We're proud to announce Informational Interviews, a new feature coming to Pathful as part of our Back to School 2026 release.

What Are Informational Interviews?

An informational interview is an informal conversation between a student and a working professional offering a chance to explore career paths, gain industry insight, and learn what a job actually looks and feels like from the inside.

Within any Career Profile on Pathful, students select a professional and choose from a set of curated interview questions. Each question plays that professional's authentic, recorded response. These are not AI-generated answers. These are real people sharing how they got started, what a typical day looks like, the skills and education that matter, the honest challenges of their work, and practical advice for students considering the field.

The difference is in who's driving. Students choose the questions. They set the pace. They decide what's relevant to them. It's the authenticity of a real conversation with a real professional, combined with the comfort and autonomy students need to actually engage. Interviews run 15 to 20 minutes total and are broken into individual question segments, so students can go as deep as they want on the topics that matter most to them.

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Why It Matters

The research on informational interviews is clear. A 2023 study published in the Career Development Quarterly found that students who completed an informational interview reported significantly higher levels of networking self-efficacy compared to a control group, one of the only empirical tests of its kind demonstrating the effectiveness of informational interviews for career outcomes. Confidence built through career exploration isn't a soft benefit. It's a measurable predictor of whether students will successfully navigate the workforce.

Not every student is ready for a live conversation and that's okay. Research on career exploration confirms that for some students, the process of obtaining career information can be stressful, and that anxiety itself can impede the career decision-making process. Informational Interviews on Pathful address this directly. Students engage on their own terms, in their own time, without the social pressure of a cold outreach or a live call. The result is broader access to authentic career insight, regardless of geography, schedule, or comfort level.

It meets state requirements at scale. State policy has been moving decisively in this direction. A Center for American Progress analysis of 2023 legislative action found that states across the country have been strengthening work-based learning data transparency, providing academic credit for WBL experiences, and institutionalizing requirements for career exploration as part of graduation planning. Education Week reports that modifying graduation requirements to reflect career readiness was among the top policy priorities for states in 2023, with 22 states enacting 34 policies related to CTE funding and career readiness in that year alone. Informational Interviews on Pathful provide structured, trackable career exploration that meets state WBL and graduation-planning mandates without placing the logistical burden on already-stretched educators.

It goes deeper than a career video. Passive content isn't enough anymore. Research from the University of Derby found strong evidence that structured career guidance interventions, as opposed to incidental exposure, meaningfully increase career readiness among secondary school students. Pathful's Informational Interviews put the student in the driver's seat. They're not watching; they're choosing, engaging, reflecting.

What Educators Can Expect

Informational Interviews are designed to fit into how you already use Pathful:

Discovery is built in. Students can find interviews through Career Profile browsing, filtering, and global search meaning no separate library or module to navigate.

Assignment-ready. Assign specific interviews or let students choose on their own. Completion tracking gives you full visibility into who's engaged.

Connected to the student record. Completed interviews are logged in the Experience Tracker meeting structured compliance documentation for WBL and graduation plans.

Launching This Fall with 115+ Interviews

We're building a launch library of 115+ interviews, equating to 20+ hours of recorded video content, spanning all career clusters, with coverage across entry-level through executive roles. Phase 1 focuses on the clusters where student demand is highest: Health Science, Information Technology, Manufacturing, and Architecture & Construction. Expect remaining clusters to follow close behind.

Every interview features professionals drawn from Pathful's network of over 60,000 industry volunteers across 5,000+ companies. We're committed to geographic and demographic diversity across the library, because the students who most need access to career mentors are often the ones who have the least of it.

What's Next

Informational Interviews will be available to all Pathful customers as part of the Back to School 2026 release. We'll be sharing more in the coming months including previews, implementation guides, and alignment documentation for state requirements.

In the meantime, if you have questions or want to learn more, reach out to your Pathful account team or visit pathful.com.

Sources

1. World Economic Forum / Kalofonos, H. (2025, March). The Workforce Readiness Gap. https://hkalofonos.medium.com/the-workforce-readiness-gap-486cdefeb95a
2. Kanar, A. M. (2023). Effectiveness of informational interviewing for facilitating networking self-efficacy in university students. The Career Development Quarterly. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cdq.12318
3. Negru-Subtirica, O., et al. (2021). Students' career exploration: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001879121001172
4. Hooley, T., et al. (2021). Increasing students' career readiness through career guidance: measuring the impact with a validated measure. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03069885.2021.1937515
5. Center for American Progress. (2024). K-12 Work-Based Learning Opportunities: A 50-State Scan of 2023 Legislative Action. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/k-12-work-based-learning-opportunities-a-50-state-scan-of-2023-legislative-action/
6. Education Week. (2024, February). States Are Making Work-Based Learning a Top Policy Priority. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/states-are-making-work-based-learning-a-top-policy-priority/2024/02

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