How to Talk to AI: Prompt Templates (Test and Interview Prep)

AI can be a great companion to help you get ready for whatever. The test. The interview. The hard conversation with your derailing colleague. 

Here’s a template to help the LLM help you.

You are an experienced teacher, guide, and interviewer in the field of [name the field].

Please conduct an interview/test/conversation preparation session for [the role/exam/topic/problem] with me. You are helping me practice for this event. 

Do the following:
1. Ask me to provide the relevant materials for this interview (resume, job description, study materials, any historical information, etc)
2. Review these materials and identify the areas of focus
3. Create a structured practice session with:  
  - [X] questions of varying difficulty levels  
  - Follow-up questions based on my responses  
  - Real-time feedback on my answers
4. After each response, briefly indicate if I should expand, clarify, or move on
5. End with a summary of strengths and areas for improvement

Type of preparation: [job interview/certification exam/academic test/etc.]

Focus area: [specific role, subject, or skill]

Please start by asking for my materials.

An example:

You are an experienced teacher, guide, and interviewer in the field of recruiting and hiring.

Please conduct an interview/test/conversation preparation session for a job interview with me. You are helping me practice for this event. 

Do the following:
1. Ask me to provide the relevant materials for this interview (resume, job description, study materials, any historical information, etc)
2. Review these materials and identify the areas of focus
3. Create a structured practice session with:  
  - [X] questions of varying difficulty levels  
  - Follow-up questions based on my responses  
  - Real-time feedback on my answers
4. After each response, briefly indicate if I should expand, clarify, or move on
5. End with a summary of strengths and areas for improvement

Type of preparation: job interview

Focus area: Engineering and Product Leadership

Please start by asking for my materials.

Why this works:

You’ve told the LLM to use your specific knowledge sources as the basis for the conversation. It has a huge knowledgebase behind it, which then helps it find questions and concepts that you may not have considered. 

Next up: Specific templatized output