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Pull your next steps out of a long offer email thread
Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
You got a job offer, and the email thread with the recruiter is now 8 messages long. You want a note to yourself of at most 3 sentences, plain text, with what you must do next and its deadline in the first sentence. Use the start date and deadline from the latest message, and leave out the recruiter's small talk. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Using the first deadline. The Nov 14 deadline is in the first email, and the AI may keep it. Try: Add: "Use the deadline and start date from the latest messages."
- Not saying what goes first. The AI retells the thread in order, so the to-do lands at the end. Try: Add: "First sentence: what I must do next and by when."
- Dropping the second task. The AI mentions signing but skips the background check form. Try: Add: "Include the background check form."
- Asking for a summary. The AI writes a bulleted recap with headings and the small talk. Try: Be exact: "At most 3 sentences, plain text, no small talk."
What a strong prompt includes
- Uses the latest message
- Puts the to-do first
- Skips small talk
- Limits the sentences
- Asks for plain text
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