I'm a manager of a small team made up of 9 engineers working on new product development at a small company with about 120 people. Over the past few years, I've put a lot of effort into soft skills and building a team where people know how to deal with each other and don't hate working together. I've dealt with a few problematic people before, and now that I've finally gotten the team to a good place, I need to add someone new.
I did several interviews and then called the references he gave me. One of them is his current manager, who knows he's trying to leave. When I asked him about him, he was very direct:
"He's probably the strongest and smartest engineer I've worked with as a manager. It's not often you find someone who can handle mechanical design, electronics, and software all at the same time. But that comes at a cost. Honestly, he's arrogant, difficult to collaborate with, and most people here can't stand working with him. He's practically a solo operator, so I had to keep his work separate from everyone else's. I give him a task, and he comes back to me when he's done. Trying to do normal check-ins or team coordination with him is pointless."
The thing is, we really could benefit from more senior experience and technical depth on the team. But I'm not sure bringing in someone like that wouldn't ruin the culture I've worked hard to build.
Would you take the risk and bring him on?
Great news — you can basically do this today! 🎉 Just add your prep questions and answers in the Custom Instructions field (Settings → Custom Instructions), and the AI will use them live during your interview. Copy this format and fill in your own:
Use these prepared questions and answers for my interview. When the interviewer asks something similar, base your response on my prepared answer below. [GENERAL] Q: Tell me about yourself. A: [Your prepared answer] Q: Why do you want this role? A: [Your prepared answer] [BEHAVIORAL STORIES] LEADERSHIP: [Your leadership story] CHALLENGE: [A problem you solved] TEAMWORK: [A collaboration example] CONFLICT: [How you handled a disagreement] [TECHNICAL / ROLE-SPECIFIC] Q: [Expected question] A: [Your key points or full answer] [RULES] - Use my prepared answers when the question matches. - Keep my exact facts, names, and numbers. - If something isn't listed here, answer normally using my background. Save it once and the AI factors these in automatically for every answer. The clearer your tags and answers, the better it follows them. 🙌
