A coffee chat, a quick call to get to know each other, a drink with the team: informal interviews are presented as not interviews, and candidates who believe that lose offers in them. The setting is relaxed; the assessment is not. The person across the table is deciding whether they want to work with you, whether you are curious about them and their company, and whether your story holds up without the structure of a formal round. This page explains why an informal interview is still an interview, how to prepare a conversational version of your pitch, the questions to ask and to expect, how to follow up, and why an AI interview assistant is a preparation tool for these conversations and nothing more, since most of them happen in person.
It is still an interview
Informal interviews happen at three points: before a formal process, as a recruiter's or hiring manager's way of deciding whether to start one; in the middle, as a culture check with future peers; and at the end, as a founder's or executive's final look. In each case somebody reports back, and the report is a verdict. What they are assessing is different from a formal round: ease, curiosity, judgment about what to share, how you talk about past employers and colleagues, whether you listen. The same is true of the conversations covered in AI interview help for informational interviews, where you asked for the meeting; here, they did, which means they already have a question about you in mind.
The conversational pitch
- Take your formal introduction, the one built in tell me about yourself, and cut it to three sentences you could say across a table without sounding like a presentation: where you are, what you are good at, what you are looking for.
- Prepare two stories, not eight: one that shows what you are like to work with, one that shows judgment. Tell them as stories, with a beginning and a punchline, not as STAR answers.
- Decide what you will say about your current employer: positive, specific, discreet. Informal settings are where people over-share, and it is noted.
- Prepare your genuine reasons for being interested, in words you would use with a friend.
- Rehearse aloud until it sounds unrehearsed; the method in how to not sound rehearsed in an interview is exactly for this.
- Plan to listen more than you talk. The best informal interviews are ones where the other person did sixty percent of the talking and left thinking you were great company.
Questions to ask, and to expect
Expect the soft versions of hard questions: "So what is your story?", "What made you reach out?" or "What made you say yes to this coffee?", "What is it like at your current place?", "What would you want to do here?", "What are you weighing up at the moment?" Answer them as fully as you would in a formal round, in a lighter register. Ask questions that show curiosity about the person as well as the company: how they ended up there, what a good week looks like, what they would change, what they wish they had known before joining. The list in questions to ask the interviewer has several that work over coffee; avoid the ones about process and benefits, which belong to the recruiter.
- Do not ask about salary, title or start date unless they raise it.
- Do not take notes on your phone; a small notebook is fine if you ask.
- Do not drink alcohol beyond one if the setting involves it, and do not order first if you are unsure of the budget.
- Do end on time or slightly early, and thank them specifically for something they said.
Follow-up
Send a short note the same day: thank them, reference one specific thing from the conversation, and say what you would like to happen next if that is clear, or ask what the next step would be if it is not. If they mentioned a book, an article or a person, follow up on it and say so. Then be patient; informal interviews often precede a formal process that takes weeks to start, and one follow-up after two weeks is enough. If the conversation made you less interested, say so politely and briefly rather than disappearing, because the person you had coffee with will remember how you left.
Where CoPilot Interview fits
CoPilot Interview is an AI interview assistant whose place in an informal interview is entirely before it: the free AI mock interview can be told to run as a relaxed coffee chat with a hiring manager, and its transcript shows you whether your three-sentence introduction and your two stories sound like a person or a pitch. The free plan gives 15 minutes a day of live help in sessions of up to 15 minutes, with AI mock interviews included. Coffee chats are usually in person, where no live tool is appropriate or possible; on the occasions one happens on video, the employer's policy governs, and in a conversation whose whole point is ease, a glance at a second window costs more than it could add, so follow your employer's rules and leave the laptop closed.
Disclosure: CoPilot Interview is our product, so weigh what we say about it accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
Is a coffee chat really an interview?
Yes. Someone reports back with a verdict on ease, curiosity, judgment and how you talk about others. The setting is informal; the assessment is not.
How should I prepare for an informal interview?
A three-sentence conversational introduction, two stories told as stories, a discreet line on your current employer, genuine reasons for interest and questions that show curiosity about the person.
What questions should I ask over coffee?
How they got there, what a good week looks like, what they would change, what they wish they had known. Leave salary, benefits and process to the recruiter.
Can an AI interview assistant help with a coffee chat?
Only in preparation, by rehearsing the conversational pitch with a mock interview and reading the transcript. Coffee chats are in person, and no live tool belongs there.
Practice this interview before the real one
The AI mock interview builds questions from your resume and the job description, reads them aloud and scores each spoken answer out of 10. Included on the free plan.
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