ChatGPT Interview Prep Guide
for College Students
By Lasse Palomaki | © 2025 The Strategic Student LLC
What to Expect
Skip the guesswork and unlock a complete blueprint on using ChatGPT as an Interview Preparation tool through this comprehensive guide for college students. The advice covered is grounded in practical, real-world insights. (This guide is not major- or industry-specific.)
By the end of this guide, you should feel confident in your ability to:
✓ Craft prompts that generate actionable advice specific to your situation
✓ Use ChatGPT as a resource for every stage of the interview process
✓ Leverage ChatGPT to its fullest potential
No more guesswork. No more confusion. Just actionable tactics you can apply today.
What is ChatGPT
From homework completion to career exploration and even vacation planning, AI platforms like ChatGPT can support students in countless ways in their academic, professional, and personal lives. Regardless of the use case, the importance of purposeful prompts cannot be overstated; the effectiveness of your prompts directly impacts the quality of the responses you receive.
You can think of ChatGPT as your 24/7 personal interview coach, ready to assist you whenever you need it. This guide focuses on practical ChatGPT prompts that make preparing for interviews easier and more effective. Use these prompts as a foundation, adjusting them to your unique experiences and objectives.
While this document provides a glimpse into the valuable support ChatGPT can offer for interviews, it only scratches the surface of its capabilities as a whole. Beyond interview prep, ChatGPT can help with everything from resume building to networking strategies, making it a powerful ally in your career journey.
Prompting Best Practices
When using ChatGPT to prepare for interviews, the quality of your prompts directly influences the usefulness of the responses you receive. Below are some general guidelines to keep in mind as you craft prompts for your interview preparation.
Be Specific: Clearly define the context and focus of your prompt. Instead of asking for general advice, specify the job title, industry, or type of interview you're preparing for. Attach relevant information like job descriptions and resumes.
Assign a Persona: Improve the depth of the responses by asking ChatGPT to adopt a specific persona. This could be an interview coach, an industry expert, or a recruiter, which can help tailor the advice more closely to your needs.
Focus on Your Goals: Clearly state what you hope to achieve with the prompt. Whether it's practicing a response, generating questions to ask, or seeking industry insights, outlining your goal helps shape the conversation.
Ask for Examples: When seeking guidance or advice, request examples to demonstrate the points. This can help you understand how to apply the advice effectively.
Iterate and Refine: If the initial response isn’t what you were hoping for, don’t hesitate to refine your prompt or ask follow-up questions. This can lead to more useful and relevant information.
Customize ChatGPT: Should you want, you can set custom instructions to ChatGPT to tailor the output to your needs. Simply go to ‘Settings’ → ‘Personalization’ → ‘Custom instructions’ and provide your preferences.
Important: Do not include any personal identifying information in your prompts to protect your privacy.
7 ChatGPT Prompts for Interview Prep
The prompts below are examples that you can use for interview prep. This is not intended to be an exhaustive listing, but a sample that provides you with actionable ideas you can implement when preparing for interviews. Adjust the prompts as needed to best suit your situation and objectives.
Important: You should rarely, if ever, expect to use the output as it comes. Always take it with a grain of salt and understand that ChatGPT is simply a tool and a resource, not a magic wand.
1. Analyzing the Job Description
Prompt: “Act as a hiring manager with a deep understanding of [specific industry/job role]. I need your help analyzing the job description copied below. Highlight the main skills, qualifications, and key responsibilities the employer is seeking in qualified candidates. Here is the job description: [insert job description].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you identify the core skills, qualities, and responsibilities emphasized by the employer and anticipate key themes the interviewer’s questions might cover, so that you can prep answers that highlight relevant qualifications.
What to Do with the Output: Use the identified skills and qualifications to tailor your responses by matching each one with relevant examples from your experiences.
2. Predicting Potential Interview Questions
Prompt: “Act as an experienced recruiter in [specific industry]. Based on the job description copied below, list 10 questions that the interviewer might ask to assess my fit for this position. Here is the job description: [insert job description].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you anticipate potential interview questions (and overall question themes) by generating a list based on the job description. Knowing potential questions (and themes) allows you to prep and practice stories in advance.
What to Do with the Output: Review each question and prep stories that highlight your relevant skills, experiences, and achievements. (You can use Prompt 3 to help with this.)
Important: There is no guarantee that these questions will come up in your interview, and it’s likely they won’t be identical in their phrasing even if they do came up. Don’t let this throw you off – chances are you have still prepared relevant stories that can be adapted in the moment.
3. Brainstorm CARL Stories from Your Resume
Prompt: “Act as an interview coach specializing in behavioral interviews. I need to develop CARL (Challenge, Action, Result, Learning) stories from my resume experiences to answer questions about [key themes from the job description]. Give me example questions I might face based on the key themes and suggest how I can structure CARL responses to them using experiences from my resume. Here is my resume: [insert resume].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you brainstorm relevant CARL (Challenge, Action, Result, Learning) stories based on your past experiences.
What to Do with the Output: Review the suggested structures and practice delivering the CARL stories you find appropriate. Focus on matching each story to the job description’s key themes.
Important: When attaching your resume, remove any personal identifying information (e.g., name, phone, email, location).
4. Identifying Key Strengths and Weaknesses
Prompt: “Act as a recruiter with a deep understanding of [specific industry/job]. Based on the job description and my resume (both copied below), help me identify my top 3 strengths and 1-2 weaknesses that are relevant for this position. Here’s the job description: [insert job description]. Here’s my resume: [insert resume or key experiences].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you gain insight into your strengths and potential weaknesses in relation to the job requirements. Understanding your strengths helps you effectively showcase your qualifications, and recognizing weaknesses allows you to prepare thoughtful responses to address them in the interview.
What to Do with the Output: Create a list of examples or scenarios that demonstrate your strengths in action, and prepare responses to address your weaknesses, focusing on how you have worked (and continue to work) to mitigate them.
5. Developing Questions to Ask the Interviewer
Prompt: “Act as a recruiter with a deep understanding of [specific industry/job]. I need to prepare questions that show my genuine interest in the role and organization and help me [attain specific information about topics like success metrics for the role, the organization’s culture, etc.]. Based on this job description, suggest 10 impactful questions I can ask. Here is the job description: [insert job description].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you generate relevant questions to ask the interviewer. Asking good questions not only demonstrates your preparation and interest but also allows you to gather valuable information to assess whether the position and organization are the right fit for you.
What to Do with the Output: Review the suggested questions and adjust them to reflect your personal interests and priorities.
Important: Avoid asking questions that can be easily answered through a quick online search, as this can indicate a lack of preparation.
6. Revising and Improving Your Responses for the Next Interview
Prompt: “Act as an interview coach. I want to revise my responses to the common interview questions I struggled with during my interview for the [job title]. Here are the questions I found challenging and why: [list specific questions and explain why you struggled with each]. Using my resume, suggest tactics I can use to improve my responses. Here’s my resume: [insert resume].”
Purpose: This prompt helps you refine and rethink your answers to interview questions you might have found challenging. By providing context around your challenges, you will receive ideas on how to reframe your answers.
What to Do with the Output: Review the suggested improved responses and tailor them to reflect your personal voice and experiences. Practice delivering the revised answers to ensure clarity and confidence during your next interview.
Important: This requires you to take note of the questions you found difficult.
7. Drafting a Thank-You Note
Prompt: “Act as a hiring manager for [specific role]. I need help drafting a thank-you note to the interviewer(s) after my recent interview for the [Job Title] position at [Company Name]. I want to express my appreciation, mention a specific topic we discussed, and reiterate my enthusiasm for the role. Here’s the context of our conversation: [briefly summarize key discussion points]. Can you help me create a concise and sincere message?”
Purpose: This prompt assists you in crafting a personalized thank-you note that reinforces your interest in the position and shows appreciation for the interviewers' time. A well-structured follow-up can strengthen your candidacy by reminding them of your relevant qualifications and making you memorable.
What to Do with the Output: Review the suggested thank-you note and customize it to reflect your voice and any additional details you wish to mention. Email the note promptly (within 24 hours) after your interview.
(*Handwritten notes can be effective, but email is delivered more quickly and allows the recipient to respond more easily, making it more likely, although not guaranteed, that you receive a response.)
Important: To effectively use this prompt, take notes during the interview to provide sufficient context for ChatGPT or add your insights to the proposed note structure.
BONUS: Researching Company and Industry Insights
One area not covered in the previous prompts is the importance of researching the interviewer(s), organization, and industry. While ChatGPT can assist with various interview preparation tasks, it may not be the best tool for in-depth research. For this purpose, utilize LinkedIn and organizational directories to research the interviewer(s), and use Perplexity AI for insights on the organization and industry.*
(*Perplexity AI provides updated, accurate information with source citations to research-heavy questions.)
The bonus prompt below can be inserted to Perplexity AI.
Prompt: “Act as my company research analyst. I'm interviewing for a [specific job title] position at [company name], and I need comprehensive information to prepare. Can you provide details on the following:
A summary of [company name]'s main products and services, including any recent innovations.
[Company name]’s recent key announcements and news.
Information about [company name]'s leadership team.
An overview of [company name]'s financial performance in the past 5 years, including revenue and any significant challenges or growth areas.
Context about the [industry], including current and emerging trends, [company]’s major competitors, regulatory challenges, and technologies that may impact [company name]'s business.
Insights into [company name]'s culture and values.”
Purpose: This prompt helps you gather detailed insights about the organization from multiple sources. Additionally, it provides context about the industry and current trends affecting it.
What to Do with the Output: Review the information gathered to deepen your understanding of the company and its market position. Use this knowledge to tailor your interview responses, ask thoughtful questions, and demonstrate your preparedness.
Important: Do not rely only on the research conducted through Perplexity AI; it is always a good idea to review the organization’s website and other sources (e.g., social media pages) for additional information.
Important: Want to learn how to fully leverage ChatGPT in your internship and job search? Check out our other AI resources for college students:
ChatGPT in Internship and Job Search Guide – this guide provides detailed information, step-by-step instructions, and templates for everything you need to know about leveraging AI in your internship and job search, from exploring careers to optimizing your resume to researching your target organizations
Get Your FREE Career Exploration Prompts
Important: Want even more ChatGPT help? Check out our ChatGPT Career Exploration Prompts for college students.
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Conclusion
Leveraging tools like ChatGPT can enhance your preparation and boost your confidence in interviews. However, while ChatGPT is a valuable resource, it should complement your non-AI preparation efforts – not replace them.
You can request interview coaching from career services, use tools like LinkedIn’s Interview Prep tool, or consult with professionals (e.g., alumni) in your target roles to get interview tips directly from an industry insider.
With the right preparation, you’ll be well-equipped to make a strong impression in your interviews.
PS. To receive further personalized 1:1 ChatGPT coaching that can address questions specific to your unique situation, you can check out our coaching services here.
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This guide is intended for educational and informational purposes only. While the strategies and advice provided aim to assist students in their internship and job search, The Strategic Student LLC does not guarantee employment or any specific job outcomes as a result of using this guide. Success depends on individual effort, qualifications, and other factors beyond the scope of this guide.
