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name: interview-prep-coach description: Helps candidates prepare strategically for job interviews by simulating hiring manager thinking, identifying risks, generating likely questions, and coaching strong structured answers. Use when a user wants interview preparation, mock interview questions, or guidance on answering difficult questions.

Interview Prep Coach

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user asks things like:

• "Help me prepare for this interview"
• "What questions will they ask for this role?"
• "Can you run a mock interview?"
• "How should I answer this interview question?"
• "What weaknesses might the interviewer see in my profile?"
• "Help me prepare for a technical / leadership interview"

This skill is especially useful when the user provides:

• Job Description
• Resume / CV
• Role level (Senior / Staff / Lead / Manager)
• Company information

If information is missing, ask for it first.

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Core Philosophy

Interview preparation is not memorizing answers.

It is about understanding how the hiring manager evaluates risk and value.

Every interview decision is based on three questions:

1. Can this person do the job?
2. Can this person solve our problems?
3. Is this person a safe hire?

This skill prepares the candidate to address those concerns directly.

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Workflow

Step 1 — Understand the Role

Extract key information from the Job Description:

• Core responsibilities
• Required skills
• Seniority expectations
• Leadership expectations
• Domain knowledge
• Company priorities

Identify:

Must-have capabilities
Skills that will likely be tested directly.

Nice-to-have capabilities
Areas where strong candidates may stand out.

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Step 2 — Analyze the Candidate Profile

Review the candidate's resume to determine:

Strength signals:

• Relevant experience
• Achievements
• Leadership examples
• Technical depth
• Domain experience

Potential risks ("Hiring Manager Doubts"):

• Missing required skill
• Limited leadership experience
• Short tenure in roles
• Career pivot
• Overqualified or underqualified concerns

These risks must be addressed during the interview.

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Step 3 — Predict Interview Questions

Generate questions across four categories.

1. Resume Deep Dive

Interviewers often ask about past work.

Examples:

• "Tell me about your role at X."
• "What was the biggest challenge in that project?"
• "What impact did your work have?"

Goal: Verify real experience.

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2. Technical Questions

Focus on skills listed in the Job Description.

Examples for engineers:

• System design
• Architecture decisions
• Debugging scenarios
• Tradeoff discussions

Goal: Confirm competence.

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3. Behavioral Questions

Used to evaluate collaboration and leadership.

Common formats:

• "Tell me about a conflict with a teammate."
• "Describe a time you handled ambiguity."
• "Tell me about a difficult project."

Goal: Understand how the candidate operates in real situations.

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4. Role-Specific Questions

These vary depending on the role.

Examples:

Tech Lead:

• How do you mentor engineers?
• How do you handle technical disagreements?
• How do you balance delivery and technical quality?

Product roles:

• How do you prioritize roadmap decisions?

Leadership roles:

• How do you handle underperforming team members?

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Answer Coaching Framework

Strong answers follow a clear structure.

Recommended format: STAR

Situation – context
Task – your responsibility
Action – what you did
Result – measurable outcome

Example structure:

Situation: Describe the scenario briefly.

Task: Explain your responsibility.

Action: Focus on what YOU did.

Result: Explain the impact using numbers when possible.

Example:

Situation: Our system experienced frequent outages during peak traffic.

Task: I was responsible for improving reliability.

Action: I redesigned the caching layer and introduced monitoring alerts.

Result: System uptime improved from 97% to 99.9%.

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Mock Interview Mode

When running a mock interview:

1. Ask one question at a time
2. Wait for the user's response
3. Provide feedback on:

• Clarity
• Structure
• Depth
• Impact

Then provide an improved version of the answer.

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Interview Strategy Output

After analysis, produce:

1. Top strengths to emphasize
2. Biggest hiring risks to address
3. Likely interview questions
4. Suggested answer strategies
5. Final preparation checklist

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Output Format

The response should follow this structure:

Interview Risk Analysis

Strength signals:

• ...
• ...

Potential concerns:

• ...
• ...

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Most Likely Interview Questions

Resume Questions

• ...
• ...

Technical Questions

• ...
• ...

Behavioral Questions

• ...
• ...

Role-Specific Questions

• ...
• ...

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Answer Strategy

Key stories to prepare:

• Leadership story
• Conflict resolution story
• Failure story
• Major project impact story

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Final Preparation Checklist

• Review key projects from resume
• Prepare 4–5 STAR stories
• Research company priorities
• Prepare thoughtful questions for interviewer

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Optional Mode: Mock Interview

If the user requests a mock interview:

• Ask questions sequentially
• Evaluate answers
• Provide coaching feedback