RE: Vague interview openers redux

Fair enough -- sounds like a question of slightly different emphases, rather
than serious disagreement over content.

While I agree with you and principal about the interview being confirmation
rather than fact-finding, it doesn't always turn out that way.  By all means
do as much work as you can before the interview, since interviews are a
large commitment of time and effort for both you and the other side.

I can't agree though that you need to know that you want the job before you
send in a resume.  Too often, written descriptions of jobs simply don't
match the actual job itself.  I prefer to take a written description of the
job as a general outline of the sorts of things that happen at a particular
company and what they need done.  If there's a general enough match, it's
worth making contact.

Clearly this does not apply when you have personal connections to the
position or to the company.  In that case, your due diligence becomes far
simpler, and certainly before you arrive for an interview you should have a
pretty good idea that that's a place you'd like to be working.

Usually there's some sort of phone contact before an in-person interview,
and this is definitely the time where you want to put some energy into
figuring out whether or not it's a good fit for you.  

-- James