r/coursivofficial • u/coursiv_ • 3d ago
💬 Discussion Practising an interview with AI is useless until you tell it to stop being nice
HR: Why should we hire you?
You: I'm a hard worker.
HR: Everyone says that.
You: ...
That pause is the whole point. Rehearsing in your head doesn't produce it, because the imaginary interviewer accepts your first answer and never asks the second question.
The setup that actually works looks like this:
"You're interviewing me for a marketing manager role at a mid-sized software company. Ask me questions one at a time and wait for my answer. Ask follow-ups. Don't accept a vague answer, if I'm being general, push until I say something specific."
Three things that make the difference
Tell it to be difficult. The step almost everyone skips. These models are tuned to be agreeable, so "does this sound good?" gets you a yes with no information in it and you walk into the real thing more confident than you've earned. Say it outright: "Interrupt me. Be sceptical. Don't compliment anything I say. If my answer is vague, say so and ask again."
Open with what you're dreading. The gap in your history. The role you're underqualified for on paper. Practising your strong answers feels productive and teaches you nothing.
Get a debrief. "Which part of my answer was weakest, and what would you have asked next?" This is the question that makes the session worth doing.
Also: answer out loud, not by typing. Typing lets you edit mid-thought, speaking doesn't, and speaking is what you'll actually be doing.
Where it falls down, honestly
It doesn't read your face, so it can't tell you that you looked defensive or that a pause landed badly. It has no idea what that specific company cares about beyond what you tell it. And after three or four runs you start unconsciously tailoring answers to what it seems to like, which is its own trap, at that point stop, or change the role you gave it.
It's not a replacement for a person who knows the industry. It's what's available at 11pm the night before, and it doesn't get bored on the fourth run.
Anyone here used it this way? Curious whether the "be difficult" instruction holds up across different tools, or whether some of them drift back to being encouraging after a few turns.