ChatGPT has emerged as an incredible tool for interview preparation.
As a tech career coach, I find that the vast majority of my clients use ChatGPT in the lead-up to interviews with prospective employers.
While ChatGPT is a powerful resource for the modern job seeker, I often receive questions like:
- What are the benefits of using ChatGPT for interview prep, and are there any drawbacks?
- How can I make the most of ChatGPT in preparing for my interview?
- What are the best AI prompts for interviews?
Keep reading to learn how to make the most of ChatGPT to prepare for your next interview!
A quick note before we dive in: Much of this advice and these best practices also apply to other generative AI chatbots like Perplexity (my favorite at the moment), Claude, Google Gemini, and others. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll use “ChatGPT” to refer to all AI chatbots.
Benefits Of Using ChatGPT To Prepare For Interviews
ChatGPT can be a great tool to help you get ready for your next interview. Here are some advantages of using AI chatbots as part of your preparation:
- Access a wealth of resources: Because of how generative AI works, you can instantaneously access a plethora of resources all in one place.
- Gain a new perspective on yourself: ChatGPT’s synthesis of resources can offer you a unique perspective into your background and storytelling skills that you may not find elsewhere.
- Quickly improve your interview skills: Engaging with AI chatbots is a fabulous way to rapidly improve your interview skills. You receive tailored feedback, constructive criticism, and live suggestions, all from one source.
- Boost your confidence: The real-time feedback provided by ChatGPT can be a great confidence boost leading up to your conversation with an interviewer. As a bonus, you can scroll back through your conversation to see how your responses improved over time. With this in mind, I highly recommend speaking your answers aloud rather than just typing them, as you want to get used to verbalizing your thoughts.
Drawbacks Of Using ChatGPT To Prepare For Interviews
Using AI chatbots to prepare for your interview isn’t without its limitations: Here are some drawbacks to consider:
- Generic and bland responses: With detailed prompting, ChatGPT responses become quite nuanced. However, they often still lack the personalization, depth, and nuance that a mentor or coach would provide. This can make your answers feel generic or boring.
- Risk of blending in: As more job seekers rely on AI chatbots, there’s a risk of sounding formulaic or inauthentic. You must incorporate unique experiences and draw inspiration from sources beyond ChatGPT if you want to stand out.
- Limited knowledge of you: ChatGPT only knows what you share with it. If you omit a major accomplishment, ChatGPT won’t include it in its feedback. Its insights are limited to what you provide, meaning “garbage in, garbage out.”
- Privacy concerns: Remain vigilant about the details you share with ChatGPT. Proceed with extreme caution before sharing proprietary or personal information.
This doesn’t mean you can’t effectively harness the power of ChatGPT to prepare for your big day; you just need to be intentional and diversify your preparation methods beyond using AI.
Tips For Creating Effective ChatGPT Interview Prep Prompts
So, how do you create ChatGPT prompts that help you stand out during your interview?
- Provide ample context: Offer ChatGPT plenty of context, including company information and details about the interviewer(s). AI’s responses tend to improve dramatically as you provide additional context.
- Ask one question at a time: Breaking down multi-question prompts allows you to course-correct as you go. You can use follow-up prompts to further refine the conversation and gain additional insights.
- Fact-check the responses: If you take nothing else from this article, let it be the importance of fact-checking the output from AI chatbots. This is especially important when a job is on the line. For example, an AI chatbot recently generated text about me that I never originally wrote and miscounted a list. Bizarre!
- Don’t let ChatGPT be your sole source: Leverage your resources beyond generative AI as part of your interview prep. There’s often a delay between updates in ChatGPT’s database, so you must conduct independent research from multiple sources.
45+ ChatGPT Interview Preparation Prompts
Now, what are the best AI prompts for interview preparation? Below are some effective prompts to help you get ready for your big day:
Interview Question Prompts
To kick things off, consider the following questions:
- Here is my resume. What questions can I anticipate being asked during an interview?
- Based on this job description, what common interview questions should I expect?
- What curveball questions might an interviewer pose?
- Can you provide a sample answer to the question, “[question example]”? Please tailor it to my experience and the job posting.
- What additional questions should I be prepared to answer?
These initial prompts are designed to help anticipate and prepare for various interview scenarios, ensuring you walk into the conversation prepared and confident.
Situational Interview Question Prompts
When preparing for situational interview questions, you want to practice your storytelling and align your responses with the role. Use these prompts to help you craft impactful answers:
- How can I make the hook of the following story more powerful?
- Where can I expand my story to make it stand out?
- Where can I shorten my answer to make it more concise and impactful?
- How can I better connect my response to this job description?
- How can I adapt this story to highlight my [soft skill]?
- What examples from my experience best demonstrate [skill]?
- Based on the stories I’ve shared, are there any situational or behavioral questions I may not be prepared to answer?
These prompts will help you refine and polish your stories so they are relevant, engaging, and memorable.
Recruiter Interview Prompts
The following prompts will help you get ready for recruiter or screening interviews, ensuring you’re adequately prepared and confident:
- What questions should I expect during a phone screening with a recruiter at [Company] for [Position]?
- Help me craft a compelling elevator pitch.
- How can I make my responses to, “Why do you want to work here?” more memorable?
- How can I demonstrate my enthusiasm for the role during the initial conversation?
- What questions should I ask during the screening conversation to learn whether the company and position are right for me?
These prompts will empower you to make a great first impression and best gather information about the opportunity.
Hiring Manager Interview Prompts
Navigating a conversation with a hiring manager requires strategic and intentional preparation, as well as thoughtful questions you can ask to demonstrate your fit for the role and organization:
- Imagine you’re the hiring manager for [Position] at [Company]. What questions would you ask a candidate?
- Based on this job description and my resume, what experiences and skills should I be sure to emphasize when speaking with the hiring manager?
- What are some common mistakes candidates make when interviewing for this, and how can I avoid them?
- What questions should I consider asking them to assess the company culture? Please make these unique and take into account the company, the culture, the role, and my distinct attributes as a candidate.
These prompts will help adequately prepare for your hiring manager interview, ensuring you demonstrate both your qualifications and your genuine interest in the role.
Peer Interview Prompts
Effectively preparing for a peer interview is important, as this type of meeting is an opportunity to connect with potential colleagues and assess team dynamics. Here are some prompts to navigate this crucial conversation:
- I’m meeting with [Peer’s Title] at [Company], what questions should I anticipate being asked?
- What will be most important to them when evaluating candidates, and why?
- How can I demonstrate my ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with the team during this conversation?
- What potential concerns might they have regarding my fit for the team, and how can I address those?
- What questions should I ask them at the end of the interview? Please consider their role within the company and how the open position will interact with it.
These prompts will ensure that you prepare thoroughly for your peer interview, allowing you to engage meaningfully and assess whether the team is a great fit for you.
Technical Interview Prompts
Preparing for a technical interview requires a deep understanding of the role, coupled with the ability to showcase your problem-solving and communication skills in real-time. Use these ChatGPT prompts to guide your preparation:
- I’m interviewing for [Position] at [Company]. How do they typically structure their technical interview process?
- What types of technical interview questions can I expect for this role?
- What are some common technical questions that tend to trip candidates up, and how can I prepare for them?
- Imagine you’re the interviewer. What rubric would you use to assess a candidate for this position?
- Based on this rubric, how do my current responses compare, and where can I improve?
- Can you help me practice solving a [coding challenge/technical problem] relevant to this role?
These prompts will support you in refining your technical skills, anticipating challenging questions, and confidently demonstrating your skills and expertise during the interview.
Presentation Interview Prompts
Preparing for a presentation interview can be daunting, but having a clear plan can increase your chances of success. Below are prompts to guide your preparation.
- I have an interview presentation with [Company] for [Position]. Here is the prompt. What 3 key items should I be sure to include in my presentation?
- Here is the presentation I plan to deliver. How well did I follow the instructions, and where can I improve?
- If you were an audience member, what positive feedback would you provide, and what constructive criticism could you offer?
- What visual aids or materials would enhance my presentation?
- What follow-up questions can I expect at the end of this presentation?
These prompts will help calm your nerves and help you ace your interview presentation.
Executive Interview Prompts
Preparing for an executive interview requires an in-depth approach to ensure you present yourself in the best light possible. The following are prompts to guide your success:
- I’m meeting with the board of directors at [Company] for [Position]. What questions should I expect?
- Here is my resume. What accomplishments do you recommend I highlight during the conversation?
- How can I demonstrate my leadership style and its alignment with [Company]’s values?
- Based on [Company]’s latest report to shareholders, what experiences, qualifications, or skills should I be sure to share during the interview?
- What key challenges is [Company] currently facing, and how can I address them in my responses?
These prompts will help you get ready for your executive interview, allowing you to highlight your best examples and tailor your strengths to the company’s unique needs.
Additional Interview Preparation Prompts
To enhance your interview preparation, these prompts can help you identify additional strengths and areas of improvement:
- Based on my resume and this job description, please ask me a series of X interview questions, including X follow-up questions tailored to my responses.
- What strengths should I consider highlighting when interviewing for this job?
- Based on what I’ve shared, where am I likely to excel in the interview?
- Considering what you know about me, where might I struggle in the interview?
- Imagine you’re [role]. What additional feedback do you have for me?
Final Thoughts On Using ChatGPT For Interview Prep
Whether you regularly use ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, like many of my tech clients, or you’re new to those incredibly powerful tools, I hope this guide helps you better prepare for your next interview.
Generative AI is a valuable resource, but it shouldn’t be the only tool in your arsenal. Relying too heavily on ChatGPT can make you come off as inauthentic or leave you unprepared for unexpected questions.
On a final note, if you’d like the support of an interview coach as you prepare for your big day, please reach out or schedule a consultation. Remember that you only get one first impression, and you want to make it the best one possible. I’m here for you! You’ve got this!
