A mock interview you can run tonight.

What is a mock interview?

A practice interview: real questions, real time limits, and an honest look at your answers afterwards. You can do one with a friend, with a coach, or on your own with a camera.

On your own, the camera is the honest part. You hear the pauses and filler words that you never notice while you’re talking.

How do you do a mock interview on your own?

Choose five questions, set a time for each, and record your answers without stopping. Then watch them back and pick one thing to change.

1. Open the practice room. There is no sign-up, and a sample set is there to try first.
2. Make your set. Type your questions or paste a list, one per line. Numbers and bullets are taken off.
3. Set the timers. Prep time, answer time and retakes, for the whole set or for one question.
4. Run it. Each question is read aloud while you prepare, then a 3-2-1 countdown starts the recording.
5. Review it. Watch each take, read the transcript, and see your pace and filler words.

What questions should you practice for an interview?

Start with the ones almost every interview asks: tell me about yourself, why this role, why this company, and a few behavioral questions about real situations.

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why do you want this role?
3. Why do you want to work here?
4. Tell me about a time you solved a difficult problem.
5. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate. How did you handle it?
6. Describe a time you worked under a tight deadline. What was the result?
7. Tell me about a time you failed. What did you learn?
8. Describe a time you led something without being in charge.
9. Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly.
10. Tell me about a time you changed someone’s mind.
11. What is a strength you bring, and something you are working on?
12. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Copy the list into TrainVue as it is: it takes one question per line.

How do you answer behavioral questions?

Use STAR: the situation, your task, the action you took, and the result. Keep the setup short, and spend most of your time on what you did and what changed.

An outline for “Describe a time you worked under a tight deadline”:

• Situation. Two days before our group presentation, a teammate dropped the course.
• Task. I had to cover their part without delaying the rest of us.
• Action. I split the work by what each of us knew best, and we met twice to rehearse.
• Result. We presented on time and got the highest grade in the section.

End with the result, and put a number on it when you can.

What feedback does TrainVue give?

After each take you can watch the recording and read the transcript, with your pace and filler words marked. Content scoring adds a score out of 10, how well the answer covers the question, and what to fix first.

Content scoring is free for your first 3 answers with an account. Pro, for every answer, is coming soon.

Is this an AI mock interview?

Not in the chatbot sense: there is no AI interviewer. TrainVue runs the real one-way format, reads each question aloud, and uses AI afterwards to give feedback on what you said.

That is on purpose. In a real one-way interview nobody reacts while you talk, so the practice doesn’t either.