Have you noticed how much business is being conducted in coffee shops these days? Everyone — financial advisers, playwrights, lonely telecommuters — seems to be staking out a corner to work in. Seats near electrical outlets are prime real estate, and laptops are almost more ubiquitous than coffee cups.

With all this commerce happening over java, don't be surprised if one of your job interviews takes place at the corner coffee franchise.

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Alison Doyle, job-search blogger for About.com (http://jobsearch.about.com), notes at least two reasons for an interview to take place outside the office, including the fact that the office might not exist. Territory managers, for example, are often home-based and do their hiring on the fly. It's also possible that an interviewer is keeping a candidate search secret from other employees.

Whatever the reason for the off-site meeting, your role as a job-seeker is to agree to the location. Then start worrying, because there are some little things to consider that wouldn't matter in an office setting.

Most notably, Doyle advises job-seekers to confirm the exact location of the meeting; your town could have multiple outlets of the franchise your interviewer has chosen.

I have a few more tips for you:

1. If you have a choice of meeting times, avoid the early morning, when coffee shops are the busiest. Midmorning or midafternoon should be safe alternatives.

2. Get to the meeting early — an hour or more, if necessary — to get the best location. There won't be a perfect situation, so you'll have to do the best you can. Avoid, if possible, tables near the door, the espresso machine, the bus stands or the restroom. Choose a table, rather than a couch or easy chairs, and do your best to find something with a modicum of privacy. Tall order, huh? I know . . . more like a "grande" order.

3. Take your cellphone with you, or tell the staff who you are. You want to make it easy for the interviewer to reach you if there is a delay or cancellation.

AMY LINDGREN

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4. If possible, don't take a coat. This will save trouble caused by chairs tipping over or coattails dragging on the floor and being stepped on.

5. Put some cash in your pocket — say, $10 or so, as well as a couple of one-dollar bills. Paying the bill is one of the most awkward parts of this arrangement. Usually, you can assume that the interviewer means to pay for your coffee, but what if that's not the case? The easiest scenario is the one in which you arrive first, get your own beverage, and then sit patiently when the interviewer arrives and goes to the counter. The dollar bills? To put in the tip jar, of course.

6. Speaking of buying your coffee: Go with something simple this time. On your own, the fussy coffee drinks are fine, but this is no time to paint your upper lip with foamed milk or to hold up the line with complex instructions for the barista.

7. Guard your privacy, but don't look furtive. You may as well accept that you're telling your life story in public. Even so, you want to control your voice level so that you're not broadcasting the conversation to

everyone else, while still somehow managing to be heard over the piped-in music and coffee equipment.

8. Stay relaxed, and roll with the punches. There's a lot you can't control about this situation, including wandering toddlers, boorish cellphone talkers and dish-banging workers. Do what you can to stay focused, but be prepared to abandon whatever point you're making if it becomes impossible to talk.

9. Take notes during the meeting — and immediately after. The nature of these interviews means that you probably won't get to make all your points or that something will be cut off midsentence. A follow-up letter will be more appropriate than a short thank-you note, as it provides the opportunity to restate key messages the interviewer needs to know about you.

There you have it: nine new anxieties to add to the process of meeting someone for coffee. If I were you, I'd order decaf.

- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecaree rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.