Asking for advice in area where I wish to retrain

[Simic]

I am wanting to retrain and have written a few emails to people who are working in the field (usually recruiting people in the job I want to do - some of them who I know a little, but not well), asking if I could contact them by phone to ask for some advice on entering the profession. I have often received no answer.

I have a few questions: is it a good idea for me to try and talk to some people? - I want to ask them for advice on the qualifications I need to gain (what they would require), as well as for any tips they have on preparing to enter the profession - and even, if they're open, to let me come along and job shadow someone for a day. I have explained this in my email. I have received some responses where I definitely don't get the impression they are dying to give me advice. I have not yet received an enthusiastic reply.
Is it that this kind of enquiry basically comes across badly? Should I just muddle through getting the qualification I think is best and then approach them when I'm qualified? Or should I try phoning straight away?
Secondly, if you think that it is a good idea to approach them now, if they don't answer, should I follow it up with a phone call anyway or should I just leave it?

I think it makes a huge amount of sense to talk to people. You just need one or two people who are willing to talk to you in order to get the sort of info you need, so even though getting no replies is hard, I think keeping at it is a good in the long run. Better to find out some answers now then invest in training and find out that a different option would have been better. I did the same thing and found a far better training course through a recommendation from someone in the field than the one I had been looking at.

When contacting them, are there transferable skills you can bring to the new profession to show that you already have skills to contribute? Also, there could be more informal networks etc in the industry that exist to support people/women in that industry which could offer a slightly warmer response. Google some key words and also LinkedIn has a lot of professional networks/ groups.

Good luck! I do think you are doing all the right things!

I think people would be annoyed if you were asking questions which could be answered by a quick google. You cant expect them to do your leg work for you.

What is the profession? You can get a lot of good advice on here.

Thank you both so much for your advice. It is not so much that I don´t want to do the leg work. It is rather that having researched it, I have found that there are at least three possible routes to where I would like to be. Just I could imagine that the employers might have preferences - they would rather have someone with x qualification than with y particularly from someone coming from my background z. As I am looking at a very niche market, I thought that asking the people I know a bit in the field would be the best way of getting some insider reactions. But, I think Darlene´s reaction is quite helpful for me to see, because I have perhaps not made that clear enough to the people who I have contacted. If they think I want them to start with the very basics, I can imagine that they couldn´t be bothered.
Thanks Leena for the suggestion of LinkedIn. I need to get deeper into informal industry networks!