Recruitment and HR Prompts: Job Descriptions, Interview Questions

Hiring is high-stakes writing. A weak job description repels great candidates. A lazy interview loop hires by gut feel. AI can level both — but only if the prompts treat hiring as a system, not a single task.

1. Introduction

The recruitment process is a funnel: a job description attracts applicants, a screen narrows them, interviews assess them, and an offer closes them. Each stage is a writing problem disguised as an HR problem. The job description is marketing. The screen is filtering. The interview is research. The offer is sales.

AI is genuinely useful at every stage — provided you brief it with the seniority, the team, the must-have capabilities, and the bar you are hiring against. Generic prompts produce generic hires. Specific prompts produce a structured, repeatable loop.

2. The Concept Explained

The recruitment funnel has roughly four stages: attract, screen, interview, decide. AI helps at every stage if you treat each one as a distinct prompt. Job descriptions need a prompt focused on attraction and clarity. Interview questions need a prompt focused on fair, comparable signal. Evaluation rubrics need a prompt focused on consistent scoring.

The job description as a positioning document

A good JD does three things in this order: it explains the mission of the role, lists the outcomes the hire is responsible for, and finally names the skills required. Most weak JDs do the opposite — they open with a five-bullet list of "requirements" and never mention what the person is actually meant to achieve.

3. The Problem Without This Technique

write a job description for a senior product manager

4. The Solution

Act as an experienced talent partner who writes job
descriptions that genuinely attract senior candidates.

Company: Northwave, a Series B B2B SaaS company (180
employees, headquartered in Bengaluru, remote-first).
We sell supply-chain analytics to mid-market retailers.

Role: Senior Product Manager, Retail Analytics.

Reports to: Director of Product.
Team: pairs with a tech lead (8 engineers) and a data
scientist; works closely with Sales and CS.

Use this structure:

1. **The mission** (2 sentences — why this role exists
   right now, not a generic mission statement).
2. **What you will own in the first 12 months**
   (3–4 outcomes, each phrased as a measurable result,
   e.g. "Cut onboarding time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks").
3. **A typical month** (one short paragraph of what
   the work actually looks like).
4. **Who we think will thrive here** (5 bullet skills
   or experiences — the must-haves only).
5. **What we will not require** (a short anti-list:
   things people often expect but we do not, e.g. "an
   MBA", "experience at FAANG").
6. **Compensation and logistics** (one paragraph —
   leave numbers blank for me to fill in).

Tone: confident, plain English, no buzzwords like
"rockstar", "ninja", "passionate". Length: ~400 words.

5. Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Define the role's mission first. Why does this role exist right now, in this company, at this stage? That single sentence is what attracts the right person.
2. List 3–4 first-year outcomes. Measurable, specific, owned by the hire. This is what differentiates your JD from every other one in the market.
3. Cap the must-haves at five. Long requirement lists scare off strong candidates with non-traditional backgrounds.
4. Add an anti-list. "We do not require an MBA" or "We do not need agency experience" is a powerful trust signal.
5. Move to interview prompts next. Use a separate prompt to generate 5–7 interview questions per outcome, plus a 1–5 scoring rubric for each. This is what gives you fair, comparable interviews.
6. Always demand a structured rubric. "Score 1–5 on signal X, with concrete examples of what a 1 and a 5 look like." Without this, panels score by feel and bias creeps in.

Tip: Ask the AI to draft a "rejection email that protects the relationship" alongside the offer email. Most hiring loops invest heavily in offers and almost nothing in rejections — yet rejected candidates remember the experience for years.

6. Practice Exercises

7. Key Takeaways