curiositech/interview-loop-strategist

Interview Loop Strategist

End-to-end orchestrator for senior-level AI/ML interview preparation. Coordinates timelines, story coherence across rounds, mock interview cadence, energy management, and post-interview debrief -- routing each round type to its specialist skill.

When to Use

Use for:

• Building a complete interview prep plan for a specific company
• Generating 2-week, 1-month, or 2-month preparation timelines
• Ensuring story coherence -- the same project told correctly across behavioral, technical, and HM rounds
• Scheduling and tracking mock interview cadence
• Energy management strategy for all-day virtual or onsite loops
• Post-interview debrief analysis and improvement planning
• Coordinating across all 7 round-specific interview skills

NOT for:

• Resume or CV creation (use cv-creator)
• Career narrative extraction (use career-biographer)
• Practicing a single round type in isolation (use the round-specific skill directly)
• Salary negotiation or offer evaluation
• General career counseling

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Full Interview Pipeline

flowchart TD
    A[Career Biographer] -->|Extracts narrative| B[CV Creator]
    B -->|Resume finalized| C[Interview Loop Strategist]
    C --> D{Company Target Selected}
    D --> E[Generate Prep Timeline]
    E --> F[Story Coherence Matrix]
    F --> G[Round-Specific Prep]

    G --> G1[Recruiter Screen<br/>Self-prep]
    G --> G2[CodeSignal / Coding<br/>senior-coding-interview]
    G --> G3[Hiring Manager Screen<br/>hiring-manager-deep-dive]
    G --> G4[ML System Design<br/>ml-system-design-interview]
    G --> G5[Technical Deep Dive<br/>anthropic-technical-deep-dive]
    G --> G6[Tech Presentation<br/>tech-presentation-interview]
    G --> G7[Values & Behavioral<br/>values-behavioral-interview]

    G1 --> H[Mock Interviews<br/>interview-simulator]
    G2 --> H
    G3 --> H
    G4 --> H
    G5 --> H
    G6 --> H
    G7 --> H

    H --> I[Debrief & Adjust]
    I -->|Iterate| G
    I --> J[Interview Day<br/>Energy Protocol]
    J --> K[Post-Loop Debrief]
    K --> L{Offer?}
    L -->|Yes| M[Negotiation Phase]
    L -->|No| N[Gap Analysis & Retry]
    N -->|Update plan| E

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Skill Routing Table

Each round type maps to a specialist skill. The strategist coordinates -- it does not execute round-specific practice.

| Round Type | Specialist Skill | Key Focus | |------------|-----------------|-----------| | Recruiter Screen | Self-prep (no skill needed) | Pitch, motivation, logistics, salary range | | Online Assessment / Coding | senior-coding-interview | LC hard, system design lite, time management | | Hiring Manager Screen | hiring-manager-deep-dive | Leadership, team fit, technical judgment | | ML System Design | ml-system-design-interview | End-to-end ML pipelines, tradeoffs, scale | | Technical Deep Dive | anthropic-technical-deep-dive | Past work forensics, technical depth, AI safety | | Tech Presentation | tech-presentation-interview | 45-min talk, audience calibration, Q&A | | Values / Behavioral | values-behavioral-interview | STAR stories, Anthropic values alignment | | Mock Execution | interview-simulator | Realistic timed practice with scoring |

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Prep Timeline Selection

Choose based on time until first round:

flowchart LR
    T{Time Available?}
    T -->|< 2 weeks| P1[Intensive Plan<br/&gt;4-6 hrs/day]
    T -->|2-5 weeks| P2[Balanced Plan<br/&gt;2-3 hrs/day]
    T -->|6+ weeks| P3[Thorough Plan<br/&gt;1-2 hrs/day]
    P1 --> R[See references/<br/>preparation-timeline-templates.md]
    P2 --> R
    P3 --> R

For detailed daily schedules, consult references/preparation-timeline-templates.md.

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Story Coherence Matrix

A senior candidate has 5-8 strong projects. Each project will surface in multiple rounds but must be tailored to the audience and evaluation criteria of that round.

How to Build the Matrix

1. List top 5 projects from career-biographer output (or direct input)
2. For each project, write 3 versions:

| Version | Round Type | Emphasis | Length | |---------|-----------|----------|--------| | Technical | ML Design, Deep Dive | Architecture decisions, tradeoffs, metrics, what you would change | 8-12 min | | Impact | Behavioral, HM | Leadership, influence, collaboration, business outcome | 3-5 min (STAR) | | Narrative | Presentation, Recruiter | Story arc, why it matters to the world, lessons learned | Variable |

3. Cross-check for contradictions -- dates, team sizes, your role, metrics must be identical across versions
4. Map projects to Anthropic values -- which project demonstrates which value (safety, honesty, broad benefit)?

Example Coherence Entry

Project: Real-Time Object Detection Pipeline (2019-2022)

| Round | Version | Key Points | |-------|---------|------------| | ML Design | Technical | YOLOv5 -> custom architecture, 40ms latency constraint, edge deployment, model distillation tradeoffs | | Deep Dive | Technical | Why ResNet backbone over EfficientNet, quantization strategy, failure mode analysis, production monitoring | | Behavioral | Impact | Led 4-person team through 3 pivots, managed stakeholder expectations when accuracy targets slipped, mentored junior engineer who became tech lead | | HM Screen | Impact | Drove 35% revenue increase through automation, navigated org politics to get GPU budget, built cross-functional relationships | | Presentation | Narrative | "From research prototype to production system serving 10M requests/day -- lessons in making ML real" |

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Energy Management Protocol

All-day interview loops (4-6 hours) are endurance events. Cognitive fatigue causes more failures than knowledge gaps.

Before Interview Day

• Sleep 7-8 hours for 3 consecutive nights prior (not just the night before)
• Prepare environment: quiet room, backup internet, charged devices, water, snacks
• Do NOT cram the morning of -- review only your story coherence matrix and 1-page cheat sheet
• Light exercise the morning of (walk, stretch -- not a hard workout)

During the Loop

| Break Length | Activity | Avoid | |-------------|----------|-------| | 5 min | Stand, stretch, water, deep breaths | Phone, social media, reviewing notes | | 15 min | Walk, snack (protein > sugar), bathroom | Replaying the previous round | | 30+ min (lunch) | Eat a real meal, step outside, reset | Studying for next round |

Cognitive Sequencing

If you can influence round order (sometimes companies ask preference):

1. Start with your strongest round -- builds confidence momentum
2. Put coding early -- requires peak cognitive freshness
3. Behavioral/values in the middle -- these are conversational and let you recover
4. Presentation whenever you rehearsed it -- muscle memory carries you
5. Avoid technical deep dive as last round -- fatigue makes it easy to ramble

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Debrief Framework

Run after every mock AND every real interview round.

Immediate (within 30 minutes)

1. Dump raw notes -- what questions were asked, what you said, what you wish you said
2. Emotional check -- how did you feel? Confident, uncertain, surprised?
3. Time check -- did you run over? Under? Where did you lose time?

Structured Analysis (within 24 hours)

| Dimension | Score (1-5) | Evidence | Action Item | |-----------|-------------|----------|-------------| | Technical accuracy | | | | | Communication clarity | | | | | Time management | | | | | Story coherence | | | | | Energy / confidence | | | | | Question handling | | | |

Pattern Detection (weekly)

• What round types consistently score lowest?
• Which stories land well? Which fall flat?
• Are you improving on last week's action items?
• Adjust prep timeline allocation based on weakness trends

For scoring rubrics per round type, consult references/mock-interview-rubrics.md.

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Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern: Uniform Preparation

Novice: Spends equal time on every round type -- 2 hours coding, 2 hours design, 2 hours behavioral, repeat. Expert: Analyzes personal weaknesses and round weighting. A candidate who aces design but freezes in coding allocates 60% of prep to coding. A candidate whose stories are inconsistent spends dedicated time on the coherence matrix. Detection: Prep log shows identical hours across all categories despite known weaknesses.

Anti-Pattern: Isolation Prep

Novice: Prepares each round independently. Tells a behavioral story about leading a team of 6 in one round, then says "I was the sole contributor" for the same project in a technical round. Expert: Uses the story coherence matrix to thread a consistent narrative across all rounds. Reviews the matrix before every mock. Has a peer check for contradictions. Detection: Same project described with conflicting details (team size, timeline, your role, metrics) across different round types.

Anti-Pattern: Mock Avoidance

Novice: Reads interview guides, watches YouTube videos, reviews flashcards -- but never actually practices speaking answers aloud under time pressure. Expert: Runs at minimum 2 full mock interviews per week in the final month. Records mocks. Reviews recordings. Uses interview-simulator for structured scoring. Treats mocks as the primary prep activity, not supplementary. Detection: Zero mock session recordings in history. Unable to answer questions within time limits despite "knowing the material."

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Anthropic-Specific Notes

Anthropic's interview process (as of early 2026) emphasizes:

1. AI Safety understanding -- not just technical competence, but genuine engagement with alignment, interpretability, and responsible deployment
2. Technical depth over breadth -- they want to see how deep you can go on your own work, not surface-level familiarity with everything
3. Collaborative problem-solving -- interviews are designed to feel like working sessions, not interrogations
4. Intellectual honesty -- saying "I don't know" or "I was wrong about that" is valued over bluffing
5. Mission alignment -- why Anthropic specifically, not just "any AI company"

For detailed company-specific loop structures (Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Meta FAIR), consult references/company-specific-loops.md.

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Process: First Session with a Candidate

1. Assess current state: Which company? When is the interview? What's your background?
2. Review upstream artifacts: career-biographer output, cv-creator resume, any existing prep
3. Select timeline template: 2-week / 1-month / 2-month based on available time
4. Build story coherence matrix: Top 5 projects x 3 versions each
5. Identify weakness areas: Self-assessment + any prior interview feedback
6. Generate personalized prep plan: Daily schedule with skill routing
7. Schedule first mock: Within 48 hours of starting prep
8. Set debrief cadence: After every mock, weekly pattern review

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Reference Files

| File | Consult When | |------|-------------| | references/preparation-timeline-templates.md | Generating a daily prep schedule for 2-week, 1-month, or 2-month timeline | | references/mock-interview-rubrics.md | Scoring mock interviews, self-evaluation, or identifying failure modes per round type | | references/company-specific-loops.md | Tailoring prep to a specific company's interview structure (Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI, Meta FAIR) |

Output Contract

This skill produces:

• Interview loop design with rounds, focus areas, and interviewer assignments
• Question bank organized by competency with scoring rubrics
• Candidate evaluation template with structured feedback format
• Debrief protocol with consensus-building and decision framework