314: Interview Tip: How Personal AI Stories Make You Memorable in Interviews

At some point in your career, you will be asked how you’ve used AI. 

Most candidates will talk about optimizing resumes or practicing interview questions, but what if your answer could be more memorable? 

In this episode, I share a deeply personal story about saying goodbye to my beloved cat, Amy Farrah Meowler, and how I turned to ChatGPT for guidance during that difficult time. What I learned goes far beyond grief. It demonstrates how authentic personal experiences can showcase your problem-solving skills and set you apart in today’s competitive job market.

Whether you’re searching for a new role, pursuing a promotion, or looking to clarify your career direction, you’ll discover how to reframe unique experiences with technology into compelling interview responses that highlight creativity, resilience, and leadership.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why authentic personal stories often make the strongest professional interview answers
• How my experience with ChatGPT during a pet’s end-of-life decision highlighted critical problem-solving skills
• The importance of understanding when and how to share personal experiences in a professional context
• How to use personal AI experiences to demonstrate your ability to think strategically and process information under pressure
• Why memorable interviews often come from moments of genuine authenticity

Who This Episode Is For:
If you’re a mid-career professional feeling stuck, undervalued, or uncertain about how to stand out in interviews, this episode will help you think differently about how you showcase your skills and stories.

Resources and Next Steps:
For more support in your career journey, join my Mid-Career GPS Membership Community, where you’ll find monthly masterclasses, office hours, and ongoing support to help you land a job you love or love the job you have. Learn more at johnneral.com/membership.

Chapters

• 0:00 Saying Goodbye to Amy Farrah Meowler
• 1:07 Using AI for Pet End-of-Life Decisions
• 5:30 What ChatGPT Taught Me About Cat Distress
• 9:09 Turning Personal AI Stories Into Interview Gold
• 15:30 Show Recap and Community Invitation
• 18:50 Closing Thoughts and Pet Appreciation

Transcript

John Neral: 0:00

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I said goodbye to our cat. Now, look, she just wasn't any kind of cat. She was Amy Farrah Meowler, named after our love of the Big Bang Theory, and I referred to her as my CFO, chief Feline Officer. If you work from home, like I do, having a pet is that extra companion you have during the day and, admittedly, over the last couple of weeks our hearts have been broken, but we know we did the right thing. She had an inoperable lesion in her jaw and when she couldn't feed herself anymore, it was time for us to say goodbye.

John Neral: 0:47

So why is this relevant to a mid-career podcast? It's actually quite simple. I'm going to share with you why I turned to chat GPT and how, if I was interviewing for a job right now, this is how I would structure that interview answer. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid-career professionals like you find a career they love, or love the one they have, using my proven four-step formula. We hear so much about using AI in our work and in our lives and how it can help us optimize our resume and our LinkedIn profile and help us practice for interviews, but there comes a point in time where any organization is going to want to know how are you using it and what's the example you're going to share with them. That is going to make you perhaps even more memorable.

John Neral: 2:01

So let me take you back a couple of weeks. A few weeks ago, we knew it was getting time to say goodbye to our cat. We had consulted with the vet on several occasions and we were given a timeframe of about three to six weeks of palliative care that we were providing for her at home. I was away for the weekend at a professional bowling tournament and I was having conversations with Richard as I was driving to the tournament and he said to me I think she's getting worse. I said, okay, what does that look like? And he started giving me some examples and we talked about how I was noticing some of that as well and I said, look, maybe we should schedule an appointment with the vet. Not entirely sure if it's time, but maybe we should schedule an appointment with the vet. So he kindly hopped online. This was a Saturday and he was able to schedule an appointment for the following Friday. So when I had some time and I got back in my hotel room, I opened up my laptop and I went to chat GPT.

John Neral: 3:17

Now, for disclaimer, I do have the paid version and I upgraded to the paid version and I do pay $20 a month because there were some features within that paid version I wanted to try and experiment and work with, and one of the things I have been learning as I've been trying to enhance my skill set with AI is that it's all about the prompt and how things start off. So I'm going to read for you the prompt and what I want you to notice is that this prompt is somewhat extensive. So here's what I wrote. This one is difficult for me and I need your help. We have a 15-year-old cat with an inoperable lesion in her jaw that is spreading. Over the past year, she has gone from 22 pounds to 13 pounds. She can only eat soft food, like delectables, and has a very hard time eating cheese or anything that she used to love, like popcorn. She continues to be sweet, loving and wants to be close, but has also noticed her retreating to the basement and lying in her favorite chair. I just don't know when is the right time to euthanize her or when she will. Let us know it's time and she's ready to go over the now.

John Neral: 4:49

Here was the next part I really struggled with. Additionally, I have a vacation planned in eight days that I would have done differently if I could go back and do it over again. So, for example, one of the things that I normally put in a chat GPT prompt, I'll say, acting as a. So, acting as an expert veterinarian, acting as a veterinarian who specializes in senior cats OK, something to help frame or tell the AI how I want it to be its perspective. Now, I normally do this and you will hear in the response that it's going to give me that perspective in a few moments.

John Neral: 5:50

The vacation piece was hard. We had planned this. We're back from vacation and the plan was Richard was going to go away and I was going to stay home with the cat and we were traveling with friends and things like that down to the beach and I thought, well, I'll just stay home with the cat because it's gonna be too much for the pet sitter to take care of. So, understandably, I was having this kind of guilt about should I, you know, do we end the cat's life so I can go on vacation, or where are we at with everything. It was really weighing heavily on my heart, which I'm sure if you're a pet owner you get right. So here's what Chad Chepiti said, and admittedly this first sentence freaked me out. John, I can hear how heavy this feels for you and I'm sorry you're facing this. Okay, I understand that this is an artificial intelligence. This is a machine. Okay, I'm not looking for it to be my therapist. I'm not looking for it to be my best friend. I need information. So I was a little perplexed at how it came out that at first. But here's the good stuff Making end of life decisions for a beloved pet is one of the hardest parts of sharing life with them. I will give you some compassionate guidance from the perspective of a veterinarian who has walked many families through this Okay Signs. It may be time.

John Neral: 7:24

Cats often tell us in subtle ways when their quality of life is slipping. Some indicators include difficulty eating or drinking to the point of weight loss, or constant struggle, retreating or isolating more often than engaging in their normal routines. Signs of pain or distress, drooling, pawing at the mouth, difficulty grooming, vocalizing, restless pacing, declining enjoyment of favorite activities, play, snuggles, following you around. Hygiene decline unable to groom, coat becoming unkempt. One tool many vets recommend is the quality of life scale, sometimes called the HHHHHMM scale for hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene, happiness, mobility, more good days than bad. Scoring each from zero to 10 can help bring clarity. Here's what was interesting about this. Now my husband is an information professional. He is a third generation librarian. We talk about cross-referencing, chat, gpt and making sure we're getting reliable information and things like that.

John Neral: 8:38

What struck me about this part of the initial response was that there were things that talked about in the signs of pain or distress that I hadn't considered. I didn't understand that restless pacing was a sign of distress in cats, and once I saw that and started seeing her doing that more once I got home, I was like oh, and then there was the vocalizing. I would go to pet her and she would meh. I was like okay, we saw the drooling, we saw the pawing at the mouth and we started seeing that happen more frequently. So, as I'm away, I'm asking Richard these questions Are you seeing this? And we had seen her start to retreat to the basement, which was very dark, and she was just kind of lying in her chair, all right. And then here was the part about about, she'll let you know.

John Neral: 9:32

Sometimes cats make it clear by completely refusing food, withdrawing or showing unmanageable pain. Oftentimes they don't give a clear sign. You may need to make the loving decision before suffering escalates. Choosing euthanasia proactively is not selfish. It's an act of kindness to prevent further decline. Your vacation it's very understandable. You're conflicted.

John Neral: 10:00

Here are some ways to frame it. If she's still eating, even if limited, seems content, sitting near you and isn't in obvious constant pain, she may still have some quality of life. If her condition is progressing quickly, continued weight loss, struggling daily with food, isolating more, it may be more compassionate to let her go before you leave. What often weighs heaviest is the fear of her declining suddenly when you're gone. Way as heaviest is the fear of her declining suddenly when you're gone. If that would cause you guilt or regret, you might lean towards saying goodbye before your trip.

John Neral: 10:37

And then it gave me this what you can do Talk with your vet soon. They can help you assess her pain, offer palliative support like pain meds or appetite stimulants and help you decide. Two, use the quality of life scale daily to track her comfort more objectively. And three, give yourself grace. There is no perfect time, only the best decision you can make with love and information. The most important thing is that you are clearly devoted to her, whether you let her go before your trip or wait a little longer, while monitoring closely. Either choice can be loving. What matters is that she leaves this world feeling safe, cared for and cherished. And then it offered to create a printable quality of life checklist.

John Neral: 11:25

So I took all of that and, no joke, I must have read this at least 10 times, going through this and thinking about things. But what happened was that I had left on a Friday, I got home on a Sunday and that Monday she took a pretty severe turn, so much so to the point that not only was she refusing food when we tried to feed her, it just fell out of her mouth. And we looked at each other and we said we know we have this vet appointment on Friday, but it makes no sense to have her starve until then. And so we talked about it and agreed, and I made the decision to call the vet on Tuesday morning, which was September 2nd, and the ironic part was her nine-year gotcha anniversary was September 3rd. So I took a lot of things from this whole experience, and here's what I learned. One it gave me some insight into a situation that I hadn't considered. Two, this was a tool that we would not have had access to nine years ago, when we lost our previous cat. And three, what did I learn from this experience that is applicable into this job market and how I would talk about using ChatGPT if I were on a job interview? Here's what I want to offer you and what I'd like for you to consider.

John Neral: 13:08

Oftentimes, when we go into interviews, we may feel like we have to present everything from a professional experience result background. Here's what I did. And oftentimes, when hiring managers and organizations are trying to assess fit, they want to know who you are as a person. Sharing a personal story that is understandably appropriate about you, using a tool such as ChatGPT, can be extremely impactful in terms of how you use this. Now it is your job and your responsibility as the candidate excuse me to consider the context of the question and whether or not that personal experience is relevant to share.

John Neral: 14:07

So, for example, if you were asked tell me about a time at work when you used artificial intelligence to help you be more efficient, you wouldn't use this example. To help you be more efficient, you wouldn't use this example. But if you're told, if you're asked rather, tell me about your familiarity with using ChatGPT or AI. How have you used it recently? By all means, that is an opportunity for you to share a story like this, to be personable, to be relatable, to show how you think and process information that is given to you and, lastly, be memorable in a very authentic and genuine way by sharing an experience. And when you finish that response, if I were interviewing and I were sharing this particular story to then share that response and say is that a way you've ever considered using ChatGPT or have you ever used ChatGPT in that way? There's a lot of ways you could take that dialogue from using that example to show how you think and how you process. And so, in a job market right now where companies are taking longer to hire, they're looking for that ideal fit.

John Neral: 15:36

Over the last couple of weeks, what have you heard on this podcast? So if you've not listened to any of these, I invite you to go back. So we're talking about last week's episode with Gina Riley in talking about her experience as a hiring manager and a recruiter. And when you're qualified isn't enough for you to ultimately help you get that job the week before, you heard from a former client of mine, chris Bond, who shared his experiences in this job market and applying for over 125 positions and then ultimately getting two job offers, and the episode before that, which would have been episode 311, which was an FAQ episode that I shared some of the most common or frequently asked questions I get asked as a career coach by people looking in this job market.

John Neral: 16:35

So, thinking about all of this this is when I I talk about. This is the story you tell, this is the story you share with people to let them in on who you are, what you do, how you think, how you feel, how you process and, yes, it is a comfort level. Some people are not comfortable sharing personal things in interviews and if you're not, don don't. But if you have an opportunity to share something you believe is going to help demonstrate why you are a great fit for the position that showcases how you think, problem solve and act, maybe a personal example may just be the thing to help you. Now, if you're looking for additional help or you're looking for additional support around your leadership and career journey, I invite you to check out my membership, the Mid-Career GPS Membership Community. You can find that at johnnerrellcom forward slash membership johnnerrellcom forward slash membership we have office hour calls ask me anything calls, monthly masterclasses and opportunities to post questions for support and information around your leadership and career transition.

John Neral: 17:52

So until next time, my friends, do me a favor. If you have pets at home, give them an extra head scratch for me, give them a hug, hold your fur babies really tight and remember you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit https://johnneral. com for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at John Neral Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters. Thank you.