Consider This My Apology for Bombing That Interview: A Nurse’s Guide to Mock Interviewing with AI

I had my first official corporate interview ever and I flopped hard. 🤦🏻‍♀️

How have I avoided getting formally interviewed in the 7 years of my adult career? Honestly, it’s a mixture of luck and the confidence I gained as an ICU nurse who's worked all over the continental U.S., across 15+ multidisciplinary ICU teams from all critical care subspecialties. There wasn't anything I hadn't seen at the bedside nor anything I didn't know how to figure out. Clinical interviews always felt like genuine exploratory conversations with colleagues to me. No pressure of pleasing the hiring team at all.

But this interview? A screening with a recruiter from a corporate healthtech company? Whole new ballgame.

I’ve been following this company for a while. I'm a BIG fan of their work. They champion clinicians, raised capital for further R&D, and genuinely put action behind their ethos of “built for clinicians, by clinicians.”

So naturally, I spent my intro nerding out. I glossed over my actual experience and ended up rambling about the company’s mission, the market, and how excited I was to be talking to them. Then—just to spice it up—I asked a question about a totally different job posting (with no lead in!) than the one I was being screened for.

It was not a good look.

*Cue the post-interview crash out.*

So how would I do things differently now that I’ve (almost) finished catastrophizing and want to learn from my mistakes?

I should have roleplayed with ChatGPT.

Roleplay? With ChatGPT?

Yes, roleplay. Not the Dungeons and Dragons kind of roleplay but structured, low-pressure, conversational mock interview. The kind that help you practice storytelling, tighten your language, and prep for curveball questions before you say them out loud in front of a real recruiter or hiring manager.

Roleplaying with ChatGPT helps because:

• 🧠 You get to practice in a thinking mode instead of a reactive mode.

• 📣 You hear yourself say the answers out loud so you can catch when you ramble, overshare, or completely miss the point.

• 💡 You can rehearse tricky transitions like "why I’m leaving the bedside" or "how my nursing experience applies to product."

ChatGPT is surprisingly great at simulating a variety of interview styles. Technical, behavioral, founder chats, even “tell me about yourself” openers as long as you prompt it right.

I engineered some interview roleplay prompts so you don't have to 😉

Before you start your mock interview with ChatGPT, grab these two things:

1. The job description for the role you're applying to

2. Your current resume (or a bulleted list of your past roles, units, projects, or achievements)

The goal is to give ChatGPT the context it needs to ask smarter, more relevant questions—ones based on your clinical experience and the specific role you're targeting.

I want to practice for a job interview. Below is the job description and my resume. I’m a [nurse / student / clinician / etc] pivoting into [product / operations / strategy / clinical innovation / etc]. Please act as a recruiter or hiring manager and interview me for this role. Ask one question at a time based on the role, the company, and my past experience. Ask up to [ 5 / 10 / 15 ] questions. After each answer, give me brief specific actionable feedback.

[PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION HERE]

[PASTE OR ATTACH RESUME HERE — or bulleted clinical experience, projects, leadership, side gigs, etc

1. Start with the set up prompt above. Copy and paste it into your AI operating system of choice (ChatGPT, Claude, Co-Pilot, Gemini, etc),

2. Within the brackets "[]", edit to customize the prompt to fit your job context.

3. Run the prompt. It will then ask you contextually specific questions that are commonly asked during interview for your role.

4. I've built in a coaching feature, so ChatGPT will give you feedback on each of your answers.

5. Go through the generated questions one at a time and fine tune your answers as needed.

✨ TIP: I personally like to take advantage of the voice-to-text dictation option so I am answering out loud as I would during a regular interview. Voice-to-text mode can most often be found as a microphone icon (🎙️).

Lets dig deeper 🪏

Multi-round interviews are common. Here are 3 additional prompts you can use in the same chat thread to prepare you for the typical 3 stages of interviewing.

🎯 Prompt 2: Recruiter Screen → Behavioral Round

Use for intro calls and recruiter chats.

Now ask me typical first-round screening questions. Focus on role alignment, communication, and transferable skills from my clinical experience. After each answer, give me brief specific actionable feedback

🧠 Prompt 3: Translate Clinical → Strategic Thinking

Use if you're pivoting into a role outside of the clinical scope of practice like product, project management, strategy, sales, or innovation.

Ask me [3 / 5 / 10] questions that test my ability to apply clinical insights to [product strategy / operations / sales / business decisions / etc]. Help me reframe my answers using language relevant to [startups / healthtech / business / etc ]. After each answer, give me brief specific actionable feedback

🧑‍💼 Prompt 4: Exec or Founder Conversation

Use for late stage interviews or mission-driven companies.

Act as the founder or Head of [Clinical Strategy / Operations / Sales / etc]. Ask [3 / 5 / 10] higher-level interview questions that test how well I understand the company’s mission, the healthcare market, and where I could add value. Keep it conversational but insightful. After each answer, give me brief specific actionable feedback

Tips to get the most out of your mock interview

• 🧾 Don’t have a polished resume? Just use a bulleted list of your experience. Include things like charge nurse roles, EHR rollouts, quality projects, float experience, or precepting.

• Be honest. Practice how you’d actually answer, not what you think sounds “professional.”

• Don’t memorize. The goal isn’t a script, it’s confidence in your stories and clarity in your message.

• Record yourself. Play it back. Notice pacing, filler words, or whether you actually answered the question.

• Use your clinical edge. Translate your bedside wins into business language:

  • Triaging = prioritization

  • Rounding = stakeholder communication

  • Handoffs = cross-functional workflows.

  • Yes, you’re fluent in ops—you just didn’t know it yet. ChatGPT will give you the words for it.

✨BONUS PROMPT!✨ Get smart about the company's culture

Before your interview, it’s smart to dig into what past employees have said about the company; the good and bad.

Sites like Glassdoor, Blind, or even Reddit threads can reveal red flags (e.g. poor boundaries, high turnover, unclear leadership) or green flags (e.g. mission alignment, psychological safety, supportive mentors).

🕵️ Once you’ve done a quick culture recon, drop this prompt into ChatGPT to help you prep your questions for them:

Act as a career coach helping a [nurse / student / clinician / etc] transition into a [product / strategy / clinical innovation] role at [company name]. Below is a job description and a summary of employee reviews from sites like Glassdoor. Use both to generate 3–5 thoughtful, high-EQ interview questions I can ask the company during my interview.

These questions should:
- Reflect my clinical background and values (e.g. work-life balance, purpose-driven work, team collaboration)
- Address potential red or green flags mentioned in reviews (e.g. overwork, unclear leadership, strong mission)
- Help me assess culture fit, leadership style, and team boundaries

[Paste job description]

[Paste Glassdoor review bullets, pros/cons, or your own summary]

Final thoughts from the bottom of my interview spiral 😅

If I learned anything from this experience, its that raw enthusiasm doesn’t replace structured storytelling. And that even the most seasoned clinicians can stumble when we’re suddenly in rooms where the rules are foreign to us.

So if you’re a nurse or clinician looking to pivot into non-clinical roles, my advice is to roleplay with ChatGPT. Practice your story. Polish your pitch.

So the next time your dream company calls, you’re ready to land the job.