Coaching practices for Is it Okay to Ask for a Job Description of My Old Job
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Is it Okay to Ask for a Job Description of My Old Job, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I want to message someone in a field I’m curious about, but I freeze on what to even say
- I’ve got the conversation booked but I’m staring at a blank page of questions, worried I’ll waste their time asking things I could’ve Googled
- Someone asks "so what are you looking for?" and I ramble out something vague and apologetic
- When I talk to people in the field they give me the polished official version, and I walk away no clearer on what the day-to-day actually feels like
- My whole job search is just refreshing job boards and firing off applications into the void, competing with hundreds of strangers for whatever happens to be posted
Practices that may help
- Request the conversation the right way
A short, specific, no-pressure request gets far more responses than a vague networking ask.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Practise your story before you need it
Have a clear, genuine two-minute narrative about who you are and where you’re headed.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Listen for what isn’t in the job description
Focus on the texture of day-to-day work, not the official narrative.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Close every informational interview with one forward step
End by asking: "Is there someone else you think I should talk to?"
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Send a meaningful thank-you note
Write a follow-up that references something specific and reports back on how you used their advice.
Informational Interviews: Career Research That Builds Your Network - Make requests specific, present-tense, and doable
A genuine request names exactly what you’d like done, by when, in observable terms.
Nonviolent Requests: How to Ask for What You Need Without Demanding - Add a forward-looking request to SBI
Pair the impact statement with a specific, doable request for next time.
The SBI Feedback Model, Made Practical - Request that the other person reflect back what they heard
Ask for a reflection, not a response — it tells you whether communication actually happened.
Nonviolent Requests: How to Ask for What You Need Without Demanding
Related concerns
- Alternative To Providing Individuals References During Job Application
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
- Career Conversation Request
A short, specific, no-pressure request gets far more responses than a vague networking ask.
Request the conversation the right way
- Career Research Conversations
An informational interview is a low-stakes conversation with someone in a role or field you’re curious about — you ask questions, they share experience, and no job is on the table. Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? popularised this as a career research tool; the evidence is largely observational and practitioner, but it consistently shows that direct conversation with insiders produces better career decisions and unexpected referrals.
- Does Indeed Tell You If You Didnt Get A Job
Focus on the texture of day-to-day work, not the official narrative.
Listen for what isn’t in the job description
- How Do You Professionally Ask About Going Back To Your Old Job
Ask about the unwritten realities of the role — the things no job posting reveals.
Prepare questions you genuinely don’t know the answer to
- How To Do An Informational Interview
An informational interview is a low-stakes conversation with someone in a role or field you’re curious about — you ask questions, they share experience, and no job is on the table. Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute? popularised this as a career research tool; the evidence is largely observational and practitioner, but it consistently shows that direct conversation with insiders produces better career decisions and unexpected referrals.
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