Last week we took a small break from our various skills series and Digital Marketing CareerYou can always submit your requests for the next Career Spotlight in the comments section, so we’d love to hear from you!
This week, Practical AI SkillsAlready using GenAI tools Narrow your goals and Enhance your resumeNow let’s move on to the next stage of the job search process: preparing for the interview.
By now, you’re probably pretty used to following some typical reflection and research advice: Preparing for the interviewYou may also be able to create an outline of your answer. Frequently asked questions in interviewsBut now, with tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini at our fingertips, it’s easier than ever to tailor your interview prep to the role and company you’re interviewing for.
In the latest episode of Coursera Podcasts, Jeff Magioncalda He shares insights into how he utilizes GenAI in his role as CEO of Coursera, and in an enlightening passage, he reveals how he utilizes these tools when interviewing candidates for top leadership roles at Coursera.
“When I’m interviewing someone, I don’t say, ‘Should I hire this person?’ I say, ‘Here’s the job description for the VP-level position I’m interviewing for. Here’s their LinkedIn profile. Here’s their Coursera description. And here are the three things I most want to find out about this person. So come up with five questions I should ask to get that done.'”
Let’s reverse Jeff’s process to help you, the job seeker, predict the types of questions you’re likely to encounter at your next interview.
How to prepare for an interview using ChatGPT
Jeff’s process of using ChatGPT as a thought partner has two key steps.
- Enter your context into the GenAI tool.
- Tell the GenAI tool to use context when answering a particular question.
You can learn more about this process and get hands-on practice in Jeff’s 1-hour course. Using generative AI as a thought partnerIf you want to strengthen your GenAI capabilities, this is the perfect course to gain practical, reproducible skills.
To get started with the process right away, you’ll need the following:
- Job description (including job responsibilities, role requirements, company overview)
- Your resume
Following the process, you first enter the context. Context is essentially any information the GenAI tool needs to answer a question, which in this case is a full job description and resume.
To enter your job description, try the following prompt:
I read the following job description and respond, “I understand the situation,” but I don’t offer an explanation.
[Copy and paste the job description]
Follow the same process with your resume. In both cases, the GenAI tool should simply respond with, “I understand your situation.”
Then, tell the tool to write job-related interview questions. Try the following prompt:
Act as a hiring manager for the position described in the job posting. Develop five relevant interview questions for the candidate with the resume above.
You can also use the GenAI tool to look at other areas of your applicants, for example predicting their strengths and weaknesses by asking the following questions:
What are the candidate’s potential strengths and weaknesses for this role?
Study the output provided by ChatGPT or Gemini and work on answering the practice questions and resolving potential weak areas using the same interview prep skills you’ve built over time.
Keep practicing
To practice basic prompting skills: Jeff’s 1-hour course Using generative AI as a thought partner is a useful starting point, and if you want to hear his perspective and learn more about what business leaders are thinking about GenAI, try his longer course: Putting generative AI to work: A CEO playbook.
To better understand GenAI, Check-out Deep Learningof Generative AI for everyoneHere we’ll take a closer look at how these tools work and what types of tasks they are best suited for.
To refresh your interview skills, University of Maryland, College Park Advanced Interview TechniquesIn this course, you will learn strategies for constructing answers to common interview questions.
That’s where we’ll take a break for this week. Join us next time as we explore other transferable technical skills.
