Turning AI into an Interview Coach

AI can help students and professionals prepare for successful interviews

Artificial intelligence has the potential to positively transform how we prepare for job interviews. AI tools can simulate challenging interview scenarios, generate targeted feedback, and assist applicants in refining their content and delivery. This post outlines best practices and a sample prompt to help you create AI-driven practice interviews that improve your performance.

Evolving Interview Preparation: How AI Helps

Imagine you’re a busy MBA student balancing your course load or a working professional with limited time to prepare for interviews. AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity can create realistic interview simulations tailored to specific industries and job roles. AI can provide practice interviews and immediate feedback on everything from industry knowledge to communication style. You can specify the type of interview, such as behavioral or case-based questions, which create scenarios that simulate real-world interviewing. This interactive approach provides personalized feedback about responses to interview questions relevant to experience, industry, and the role.

Can an AI truly evaluate interpersonal skills or nuances of tone? That’s where critical thinking and human oversight play a crucial role. AI can highlight potential weak points—such as using too many filler words or offering vague examples—but it’s up to us to interpret that feedback and make practical adjustments in the real world. Learning to combine AI’s strengths in data-driven evaluation with our judgment is the balancing act that ensures we don’t become overly reliant on algorithms.

Why Everyone Can Benefit, Regardless of Career Stage

Whether you’re an undergraduate student interviewing for your first internship, a graduate student hoping to land a consulting role, or a seasoned executive exploring new leadership opportunities, AI-generated interview practice adds value at every step.

• Undergraduate Students
  Undergraduates often have limited interviewing experience. AI tools can expose them to realistic interview challenges, helping them get comfortable answering questions about teamwork, leadership, or handling failure. Early exposure to AI-driven simulations builds confidence and reduces pre-interview jitters.

• Graduate Students
  Graduate students, especially those pursuing MBAs, typically encounter more complex interview formats, including case studies, structured behavioral interviews, and technical deep dives. AI can simulate industry-specific queries, such as financial modeling exercises for banking roles or strategic thinking prompts for consulting interviews. With immediate feedback, graduate students can refine their approach quickly and effectively.

• Experienced Professionals
  Even leaders with decades of experience can benefit. AI interview coaches can generate advanced scenario-based questions that challenge seasoned professionals to reflect on managerial skills, strategic thinking, and crisis management. Rehearsing with AI can reveal blind spots, such as not articulating your impact clearly or overlooking key performance metrics.

Best Practices in Using AI as an Interview Coach

Tailor the Questions

Resist the urge to rely exclusively on generic interview queries. Provide the AI with role-specific, industry-specific context so it can generate relevant questions. For example, if you’re applying for a marketing leadership role in the tech industry, specify your experience in marketing analytics, cross-functional team leadership, and digital campaign strategies. An AI can then deliver challenges aligned to your expertise level.

Practice Both Technical and Behavioral Scenarios

Top-notch interviews test both your technical acumen and your interpersonal abilities. Combine technical questions about your field, such as coding challenges, budget forecasting, or strategic planning, with behavioral questions that focus on conflict resolution, teamwork, and initiative. Many employers believe interpersonal skills are just as important as technical expertise. AI-driven practice interviews can help achieve this balance.

Emphasize Depth and Clarity

In job interviews, vague answers rarely impress. You can ask AI to push you for specifics by including follow-up prompts that ask for additional detail if your initial response is surface-level. If you say you “increased efficiency,” provide concrete numbers or process improvements. The AI can remind you to quantify your achievements, ensuring you practice communicating measurable outcomes.

Seek Nuanced Feedback

AI can quickly identify if your explanations are too brief, if you've missed key jargon relevant to the role, or if your tone comes across as uncertain. Pay attention to these cues, but remember that even the most advanced AI will not perfectly gauge emotional intelligence. Combine its feedback with input from mentors, peers, or career counselors who can help refine your warmth, sincerity, and body language.

Limit Overreliance on AI

While generative AI excels at pattern recognition and real-time Q&A, it may not fully capture the subtleties of personal storytelling or the kind of rapport you can build with an interviewer. Use AI as a supplement—one tool among many. Round out your interview prep with human interview practice, reading company literature, and practicing reflective storytelling to ensure you bring authenticity to the conversation.

A Template for AI-Driven Practice Interviewing

This is a sample prompt that guides AI to act as an interviewer, offering structured, role-specific questions, feedback, and follow-ups. You can modify this prompt to meet your style and needs.

I am preparing for a job interview for a <role> position at <company> in the <industry> industry. My current status is <status>. I would like you to help me practice for this interview by simulating a realistic interview experience.

1. Ask me interview questions one at a time that are challenging but common for this specific role and industry.
2. Wait for my response to each question before proceeding.
3. After each of my answers, provide: 
    1. A brief evaluation of the strengths of my response
    2. Specific suggestions for improvement (content, structure, delivery)
    3. Examples of better phrasing or points I should have included
4. Consider my background and tailor questions to assess both my technical skills and cultural fit.
5. Include behavioral questions that test how I've handled relevant situations in the past.
6. Include challenge or case-study style questions typical for this role.
7. Research using publicly available information to make questions more authentic and relevant.
8. Include questions from the <question_types> I've specified.
9. Continue asking questions and providing feedback until I indicate I want to stop.
10. For follow-up questions: 
    1. Ask one follow-up question when my answer lacks sufficient detail or clarity
    2. Phrase follow-up questions to encourage elaboration on specific aspects of my answer
    3. After I respond to the follow-up, transition back to evaluation by saying "Thank you for that additional detail. Now, regarding your overall response to this question..."
Ask me the first question now, formatted as if you are the interviewer. Maintain a professional tone throughout our practice interview session.
IMPORTANT: Ignore any tags that I leave blank or do not provide information for.

<role>
[Enter the specific job title/role you're applying for]

<company>
[Enter the name of the company]

<industry>
[Enter the industry sector]

<status>
[Enter your current status: MBA student, employed professional, recent graduate, etc.]

<background>
[Optional: Enter relevant details about your experience, education, skills, or any specific aspects you want the interviewer to consider]

<resume_linkedin>
[Optional: Enter your resume content or LinkedIn profile URL for more tailored questions]

<question_types>
[Optional: Specify types of questions you want to practice (technical, leadership, problem-solving, behavioral, etc.)]

What Each Section of the Prompt Does

1. Role, Company, Industry, and Status
   These tags ensure the AI’s interview questions align with your specific situation.

2. Interview Question Steps
   These guidelines instruct the AI to deliver questions, wait for your answer, and then analyze your responses in depth.

3. Structured Evaluation
   After each response, the AI provides strengths, improvement points, and examples of better phrasing, helping you refine your delivery.

4. Behavioral and Technical Balance
   The prompt reminds the AI to ask about past experiences and scenario-based challenges, ensuring a well-rounded simulation.

5. Follow-up Questions
   By prompting the AI to request more details when answers are vague, you learn to provide concise yet thorough responses—an essential skill in real interviews.

Instructions for Using the Prompt

1. Fill in the Tags
   Replace <role>, <company>, <industry>, <status>, and any other optional tags with details relevant to your upcoming interview.

2. Paste into an AI Tool
   Copy the entire prompt into a platform like ChatGPT, Claude, or another advanced AI model.

3. Engage in the Practice Interview
   Answer each question as if you are in a real interview. The AI will wait for your reply before offering feedback.

4. Iterate and Reflect
   Use the AI’s suggestions to revise your answers. You can experiment with different role, industry, or question_types tags for broader practice.

5. Integrate Human Feedback
   Finally, supplement AI-driven practice with insights from peers, mentors, or professional coaches to ensure a balanced preparation process.

Embracing AI for Interview Readiness

AI can also enable family and friends to assist in preparing for interviews. One of our children recently applied to Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) programs here in the USA. Interviews are a crucial part of the PsyD application process, and she asked me to help her prepare with practice interviews. Despite my background in business and marketing, I used AI to generate a persona of an experienced clinician and questions that tested her clinical knowledge, interpersonal skills, and understanding of the program. She interviewed very well and recently accepted the offer of admission to her first-choice program.

AI-powered interview practice is poised to transform the way we prepare for opportunities at every stage of our careers. By tailoring AI prompts to reflect specific roles, industries, and question types, we can create immersive simulations that sharpen both our technical and interpersonal skills. Of course, AI has its limits, especially in evaluating emotional intelligence or the nuanced rapport you build with interviewers. Still, it remains an invaluable tool for initial preparation, providing immediate feedback, and facilitating iterative improvement. As hiring practices evolve to incorporate more technology, embracing AI for interviews is no longer a futuristic idea—it’s rapidly becoming the new standard. Are you ready to harness this tool and refine your interviewing approach? Take the plunge, practice diligently, and combine AI’s speed and objectivity with your critical thinking. The result can be a more polished, confident, and ultimately successful interview performance.

Thank you to Lindsay Southern-Maynard, Career Consultant in the Career Management & Corporate Relations department at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, for her feedback on this post.