Give AI a Small Job You Can Check.
A suggested 20-minute interview-practice exercise, with a fictional role and you in charge of the checking.
Practical guide · By FIERCE
Don't give AI the job of deciding whether you're employable. Give it a small piece of interview practice, then check its work.
That's a useful place to start because you can judge whether a question fits a role and whether an answer tells the truth about your experience. You don't have to treat the output as hiring advice.
This is a suggested exercise, not a product review. We're not claiming to have tested a particular model. Tools may respond differently; deciding what's relevant stays with you.
Start with a fictional brief
Use this scenario:
“A small community arts organization needs a project coordinator to track deadlines, communicate changes to volunteers, and prepare a weekly progress update. The coordinator works with people who have different schedules. No specialist software is specified.”
Keep it fictional. There's no reason to upload a real employer's documents, client details, or a private résumé for this exercise. Keep the examples you use to practise anonymous too.
Ask for three questions, with a reason for each
Use a tool you're already comfortable with. Copy this prompt:
“Using only the fictional role brief below, write three practice interview questions. For each question, identify the responsibility it relates to. Do not add qualifications or company facts that are not in the brief. Do not predict hiring outcomes. After the questions, list any assumptions you made. Role brief: [paste the fictional brief].”
Read the response before answering anything. Does each question connect to tracking deadlines, communicating changes, or preparing updates? Has the tool slipped in a requirement the brief doesn't contain? Ask it to remove unsupported requirements. A confident sentence doesn't get a pass just because it sounds plausible.
Answer one question yourself
Pick one question. Use a real example you can discuss without revealing confidential information. Write a few sentences covering the situation, your action, and what happened.
If you're entering work, you might use a project, volunteering role, or part-time job. Say what the context was. You don't need to dress it up as something else.
Then ask: “Identify unclear parts of this answer. Ask me two questions that would help me make it more specific. Do not invent achievements, metrics, or experience.”
Check every suggestion. If a polished version turns your modest contribution into an achievement you didn't deliver, reject it. You need an answer you can stand behind, not one that requires you to play a more impressive character.
Compare before and after
Read your original answer and the revision aloud. Is the new version easier to follow? Does it still sound like you? Can you support every detail? Keep the changes that help. Leave the rest.
If the tool gets distracted or repeatedly invents information, stop. Finding that limit is a useful result. You can practise the same questions alone or with someone you trust; you don't have to keep prompting until the tool behaves.
Your move this week
Give this 20 minutes: five to set up, five to check the questions, five to answer, and five to review. Save one useful question and one limitation you noticed. Then finish. That small record tells you more than another list of tools you haven't used.
Try the One Useful Move worksheet →
General guidance, not legal, financial or medical advice. Read our editorial standards.