Lab 1 - Ace your interview with Copilot Chat

Imagine you’re interviewing for an internal position at your company. You’ve been communicating with the hiring team via email. Now you want to prepare for the interview, learn more about the team you’ll be working with, and draft answers to potential questions. This lab guides you through each step using Copilot Chat in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

[!NOTE] The steps in this lab use the Microsoft 365 Copilot app at m365.cloud.microsoft. Sign in with your work account and follow along using your own resources.

Exercise 1 - Research the interviewer

Use Copilot Chat to gather information about the interviewer and their role at the company.

  1. Open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app by navigating to +++https://m365copilot.com+++ and signing in with your work account.

  2. Select New chat and start a conversation in the chat area.

  3. Enter the following prompt, replacing the placeholders with values from your company:

    +++Find information about [Interviewer’s Name] and their role at [Company Name].+++

    [!NOTE] Replace [Interviewer's Name] with the name of the person who will be interviewing you, and [Company Name] with the name of your company.

  4. Review Copilot’s response and note any relevant background, including their area of focus, recent projects, or public statements.

Exercise 2 - Research the department

Research the department you’re applying to so you can speak to its priorities and direction during the interview.

  1. In the same Copilot Chat conversation, enter:

    +++Provide an overview of [department name] at [Company Name]. What are their current focus areas or recent initiatives?+++

    [!TIP] Instead of prompting Copilot Chat directly, you can try the Researcher agent for this step. In the left navigation pane, select Researcher, then enter: Research [Company Name]’s [department name]. Summarize their current priorities, recent news, and any publicly available strategic initiatives. Researcher runs a multi-step research task across the web, synthesizes findings from multiple sources, and returns a more comprehensive briefing than a single-prompt response. Compare the two outputs to see the difference in depth.

  2. Review the response. Identify two or three points you can reference in your interview answers.

Exercise 3 - Generate anticipated questions

Use Copilot to anticipate the questions you’re likely to be asked, so you can prepare substantive responses rather than improvising.

  1. Continue in the same Copilot Chat conversation.

  2. Enter the following prompt:

    +++Based on this department’s focus areas, generate a list of likely interview questions for a [job title] role.+++

    [!NOTE] Replace [job title] with the title of the role you’re applying for.

  3. Review the list of questions.

Exercise 4 - Draft your answers

Use the questions Copilot generated to draft answers that reflect your experience and align with what you’ve learned about the role.

  1. In the same Copilot Chat conversation, enter:

    +++Draft concise answers for each of the questions in the previous response. Write in first person and focus on specific examples rather than general statements.+++

  2. Review each answer. Continue to prompt and refine them to reflect your actual experience. Remember, Copilot’s drafts are a starting point, not a final product, and your personal edits are critical.

Exercise 5 - Save your preparation as a Copilot Page

Rather than copying your questions and answers elsewhere, save them as a Copilot Page—a persistent and editable canvas you can return to and update before the interview.

  1. In the Copilot Chat response that contains your drafted answers, select More options(…), and then select the pencil (Edit in Pages) option that appears.

  2. Copilot opens the content as a Copilot Page side-by-side with your chat.

  3. Edit, reorder, or add notes directly in the page.

  4. Select the Share icon on the upper right, then select Copy link to copy a link if you want to share the page with a mentor or colleague for feedback.

[!NOTE] If you need the content in Word format, for example, to share with someone outside your organization or to use offline, on the Copilot Page toolbar, select More options (…) → Export → Document. The page downloads as a .docx file that you can edit and save locally. Select Open Word to open the file in Word for further editing.

Exercise 6 - Draft a thank you note using Copilot Chat

After the interview, use Copilot Chat in the Outlook side pane to draft a thank you note so you stay in the same context as your inbox without switching apps.

  1. Go to +++https://outlook.cloud.microsoft+++ and sign in with your work account.

  2. Select Create a new email to create a new email draft, but don’t enter any content yet.

  3. In Outlook, select the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner to open the Copilot Chat side pane.

  4. Enter the following prompt:

    +++Draft a brief thank you note to [Interviewer’s Name] following our interview today for the [job title] role at [Company Name]. Keep it professional and genuine, and limit it to three short paragraphs.+++

    [!NOTE] Replace [Interviewer's Name] with the name of the person who interviewed you, [job title] with the title of the role you applied for, and [Company Name] with the name of your company.

  5. Review the draft. Adjust the tone and any specific details to reflect the actual conversation.

  6. Copy the draft into a new email in Outlook, add the recipient, and send.

End of Lab