While people have been using ChatGPT for creating emails, writing scripts, and getting help with their homework, there’s another interesting use of the AI chatbot that you should know: preparing for a job interview – whether that’s behavioral or technical.
ICYMI: What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot released by OpenAI last year. What makes it so different from most other chatbots is its real-time interactive interface that allows you to have a conversation with it in real-time. It’s almost like talking to a real human being, especially since it can remember what you said earlier on in a conversation and even allows follow-up corrections.
That’s not all that it can do – you can only understand how powerful it is once you try it by yourself. But one use of ChatGPT that has really stumped me is using it for preparing for a job. It might sound futuristic, but it’s true and here’s how you can do it too!
Ask Questions the Right Way
Before we start, you need to remember one thing: ChatGPT is still a machine (and an AI model trained with data) and despite being super smart and having an answer to (almost) anything, it can’t read your mind. In other words, you need to tell it exactly what you’re looking for to get accurate answers.
To do that, here are some tips you should keep in mind when writing your prompt:
- Remember that chatGPT is basically a large language model and to make it understand what you really want, you should be very clear and specific when asking it questions.
- Make sure you use proper punctuation and grammar so that chatGPT understands it properly.
- ChatGPT might not always give you a comprehensive answer to your question but that’s okay. If you think there’s more to the question you initially asked, you can always ask follow-up questions and make the model expand on its initial response. For instance, if its answer to a question lacks any examples, you can always go ahead and ask it something like: ‘okay, now can you give me some examples?’
- Once you’re done asking all your questions, ask ChatGPT to summarize its answers as well as the follow-up questions to get a concise and clear answer. Getting a summary will also help organize all the information you’ve received and make it easier to digest, understand, and even retain.
- It may take some time and a little bit of experimentation to get ChatGPT to give the most accurate answers. So if you don’t get the answer you’re looking for in the first go, don’t be disheartened. Keep experimenting and asking questions in different ways until you get the right answer.
Generate Possible Questions
With the basics out of the way, you can now move on to the next step: generating interview questions. When doing so, make sure you mention these things in the query:
- If you’re looking for questions for technical or behavioral interviews for certain roles, make sure you mention that.
- If there’s a specific hard skill or soft skill you’re looking to question, add that to your query.
- Similarly, if there’s an industry you’re particularly targeting, make sure you mention that.
Don’t forget to add relevant keywords and specific scenarios in the prompt to get filtered and more specific answers.
Here’s an example:
Get Sample Answers
Now that you have a list of possible questions, the next thing you need to do is figure out how to answer them in the best way possible. To do so, you can ask ChatGPT to come up with sample answers. Here, too, make sure you mention specific requirements explicitly.
So, for instance, if you want an answer tailored according to your resume or experience or if you want the answer to follow the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result, particularly used to answer behavioral interview questions), then make sure you specifically mention that.
Keep in mind that ChatGPT doesn’t have your resume and doesn’t know anything about you other than the details you provide yourself. This means, you’ll have to give it details about your experience and your resume if you want personalized answers.
To do so, you can include specifics in your queries like the tasks you’ve done in the past and the target job title. You can even copy-paste your resume! This way, ChatGPT will be able to generate more personalized answers.
Let’s see an example. Here’s my prompt: Can you provide a sample answer to the question: ‘Tell me about a time when you had to work with a challenging client’, based on my experience as a content manager listed on my resume? I want to highlight my ability to handle difficult situations and maintain positive relationships in this answer.
Here’s what ChatGPT has to say (I asked for multiple answers to get one I liked most):
Get Feedback
Another thing you can do with ChatGPT is get feedback on your answers. In this case, you should provide detailed answers using examples from your experiences. Then, note the suggestions and feedback it provides and fine-tune your answers.
An example of a prompt that you can use for feedback is:
Here’s what ChatGPT had to say about it:
What’s Next?
This is just the tip of the iceberg – there’s a lot more you can do with ChatGPT when it comes to preparing for your job interview. And not just that, you can even get help with writing a cover letter or polish your resume – all you have to do is explore!