Networking, information interviews, career conversations, coffee chats -- call them what you like. Wise executives know you have to be doing them on a regular basis, no matter how content or successful you are in your job. Constant convergence within any industry today demands it. It's necessary for business reconnaissance and it's necessary for prospecting your next career move.
If you are in job search mode, and you are about to meet with someone you've invited for a coffee, you've got some pre-thought questions ready about their career, their industry or their organization. But be ready for them to want something back. Ultimately, they want answers to these two questions:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you really want?
First question is really about you having a strong sense of self, able to articulate your work history (ie. credibility) in terms of industry and functional expertise, in a relevant way to them. Asked another way: what do you have to offer that we could use? They are scoping you out even though they didn't do the inviting. ("We're always looking for good people.")
Second question is really about them needing a sense of your career vision. They're wondering "Where do you see this fitting into your overall bigger picture and career plans? Have you done that kind of thinking? How do you fit? How does your experience translate into something we may need? What are you looking for from me? What do you want the next step to look like here?"
If you can be ready with a smashing sense of self and an impressive effort of pre-work (having unique insights on their industry, having done some unexpected research on this person/company), you're marking yourself as a confident, initiative-taker who is worth staying connected with for future opportunities. That's what you want. So when the next opportunity comes up, and you've done a respectful job of staying top-of-mind, guess who gets the call saying "hey Jill, would you be interested in...?"