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Offer a recruiter interview times in her time zone
Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
A recruiter in California asked when you're free for a phone screen. Reply in under 60 words, plain text: thank her in one short sentence, then exactly 3 numbered time slots written in Pacific Time from your Eastern Time availability, then one line confirming your phone number. Skip the slot you just lost to a conflict. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- No fixed shape. The AI writes a long email with times scattered in sentences. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 3 numbered time slots."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 60 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each slot under 8 words."
- Keeping the lost slot. Wednesday is still on your list before the note. Try: Add: "Skip Wednesday."
- Leaving times in Eastern. The AI copies your times or lists both zones, which is what she asked to avoid. Try: Add: "Convert to Pacific (ET minus 3) and label each PT."
- Missing the phone fix. The AI doesn't notice the typo on your application. Try: Add: "Last line: my correct number is 404-555-0129."
What a strong prompt includes
- Converts to Pacific
- Skips the conflict
- Sets the number of slots
- Fixes the phone number
- Sets a word limit
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