Prep for a job interview with a mock, not a script

What you'll need

• The job post
• Two or three real stories from your work or school (a problem, what you did, what changed)
• A quiet 25 minutes

Step 1: Turn the job post into questions

You are an interviewer for this role. Here is the job post:
[paste]

Here are stories I might use. They are true:
[paste 2 or 3 short stories]

Rules:
- Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer.
- Mix questions about the job post with "tell me about a time" questions.
- Do not write an answer for me before I try.
- After I answer, tell me what was clear, what was missing, and one follow-up a real interviewer would ask.
Start with the first question only.

Step 2: Answer like you're in the room

Type the way you talk, or say it out loud and then type the gist. Do not ask for a polished paragraph until you have tried.

Step 3: Collect the gaps

After four or five questions:

Stop. List the questions where my story was thin. For each one, tell me what detail a interviewer would still want (a number I lived through, a constraint, or what I did next). Do not invent those details. Ask me for them.

Fill the details from memory. If you don't have a number, say what you do remember. Do not borrow a metric from the AI.

Step 4: One answer, tightened by you

Pick the shakiest answer. Rewrite it yourself in four sentences: situation, what you did, what changed, what you'd do again. Then:

Here is my rewrite: [paste].
Point out any sentence that sounds generic or that I didn't earn with a detail. Do not rewrite the whole answer.

Director check: look before you use it

• Is every story something you actually did? If you wouldn't say it to the hiring manager with a straight face, cut it.
• Are the numbers yours? Dates, team size, and results have to come from you.
• Can you answer the follow-up without looking? Close the chat and try one question out loud.
• Does the answer match this job post? A great story about the wrong work still misses.

The interview is the last step. The resume is Update your resume, the letter is Write a cover letter, and the weekly plan is Run a job search.

One extra tip

If your free ChatGPT account shows a voice button, answer one question out loud and let it reply. Speaking is closer to the interview than typing a perfect paragraph.