Setting up Custom Interviews with Job Interview Roleplay
Customisation guide
This handy guide provides instructions, examples, and tips that help you lay a solid foundation for your custom interviews.
Whether you’re tweaking one of our preset interviews or coming up with one from scratch, we’ve got a few tips to get you started. With our guidance in hand, you’ll be well on your way to creating unique and immersive practice experiences for your learners.
Contents
This guide explains the function of the following settings on BSGO:
1. Simulation title
2. Simulation description
3. Job title
4. Simulation customisation options
5. Company name
6. Job description
7. Upload PDF job description
8. Questions
9. Interviewers
10. Interview response structure
11. Toggle help
12. Toggle follow-up questions
13. Submission
Use the links above to jump to a specific section of this guide.
Simulation title
The title of your custom roleplay is displayed in BSGO for you and in the app for the learner. You have 70 characters to work with (roughly 15 words), so keep it brief but identifiable. It’s a good idea to include the job being applied for so that you can find it, but you can also try engaging your learners’ curiosity with it!
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
A latte with Leon: a barista interview at How You Bean
Selling yourself: a retail interview at the New Curiosity Shop
Triple threat: a panel interview for an office administrator
Simulation description
This is the description that learners will see in the app when they are selecting a customisation from the list. It should give them a short overview of what the scenario is. Tailor it to reflect the job role in the interview you’ve created and be sure to include any extra pieces of information a learner needs to know before they start.
You have 350 characters to work with (roughly 60 words).
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
In this AI-powered roleplay, you'll be applying for a barista position at your local coffee shop, How You Bean. Your interviewers will be exacting, so make sure you come prepared for follow-up questions! Afterwards, we’ll give you personalised feedback to help you nail your next interview. Think you've got what it takes?
In this AI-powered roleplay, you’ll be interviewed for a cashier role at Plainsbury’s, your local supermarket. Afterwards, we’ll give you personalised feedback to help you nail your next interview. Ready to get started?
In this AI-powered roleplay, you’ll set the terms: it’s up to you to pick the job you’re interviewing for. You’ll face three interviewers here. Afterwards, we’ll give you personalised feedback to help you nail your next interview. Ready to land your dream job?
Upload PDF job description
If you already have a job description written, you can click the ‘Upload PDF Job Description’ to upload it directly, rather than writing it out again. It will be edited by the AI to fit the 1200-character limit, then inserted into the job description field for you to review and edit further.
Note that it must be saved as a PDF to be uploaded.
Job title
Write the title of the role that the learner is interviewing for here. It will be displayed to them on the welcome screen when they launch the simulation in the app. If you’re using AI-generated questions, it will also be used to help shape the questions the interviewers ask.
You have 100 characters to work with (15 to 20 words), but for best results, we suggest you keep what you enter here brief – e.g., ‘Barista’, ‘Learning Designer’, ‘Sales Assistant’, and so on. Leave extra details for the job description.
Company name
This is the name of the company interviewing for the position. It will be displayed for the learner on the welcome screen when they launch the simulation in the app. If you’re using AI-generated questions, the interviewers may use this to ask why the learner wants to work at the specified company.
You have 100 characters to work with (about 15 words), but for best results, we suggest you keep what you enter here brief – e.g., ‘Plainsbury’s’, ‘Busywork Business Solutions’, ‘The New Curiosity Shop’, and so on.
Job description
This field has two functions. It’s shown to the learner when they enter the module, so they can review the requirements of the role, and it can also be used by the AI to generate the interview questions. Use it to describe the job being interviewed for in detail, including a summary, key requirements, and any responsibilities.
It’s important not to rush this one: the more information you provide, the better prepared your learners will be, and the better the questions the AI will generate.
You have 1200 characters to work with here (around 200 words), so be succinct yet descriptive.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
We at How You Bean are looking for a barista to prepare and serve coffees, teas, and other hot and cold drinks. If you have a passion for coffee and good service, you’ll fit right into the team here at our friendly local coffee shop.
Your responsibilities will include preparing and serving drinks, as well as serving pastries and other pre-prepared foods. You’ll need great customer service skills, strong organisation to take and track orders and payments (cash and card), and be prepared to work as part of a team to ensure great service for our patrons at all times. Note that you may also need to be flexible to pick up shifts as required.
Responsibilities:- Take orders
- Provide recommendations and answer customer questions
- Prepare and serve hot and cold drinks
- Serve pre-prepared foods
- Take and process payment transactions
- Keep the serving area clean, hygienic and presentable
- Communicate any customer concerns to management
Skills and experience:
- A passion for good coffee. The one thing we can’t teach!
- Barista or general customer service experience preferred
- Flexibility to pick up shifts as required
- Excellent communication skills
- Basic maths skills; experience handling currency a plus
We at the New Curiosity Shop are hiring a retail assistant to provide great service for customers at our gift shop. If you’re the kind of person who loves finding the perfect gift, we want your expert advice for our customers!
Your main responsibilities will include advising customers on what to buy, taking payments, giving change, and issuing receipts. To succeed here, you’ll need a passion for finding the right gift for the right person, great communication skills, and ideally some experience taking and processing payment transactions.
Responsibilities:
- Greet and advise customers
- Take and process payment transactions in both cash and card
- Keep the shelves stocked and tidy
- Field customer complaints and questions
- Receive returns
Skills and experience:
- Excellent communication skills
- Excellent customer service skills
- Basic maths skills; experience handling currency a plus
- Familiarity with cash registers a plus
We at Busywork Business Solutions are currently in the process of digitising our back records and are looking for a data entry clerk on a six-month FTC to help with the process (with the potential to stay on for those who excel in the role). The ideal candidate will have strong computer skills, an excellent typing speed and a keen eye for detail. You’ll need to be motivated, highly organised, and a self-starter. Experience preferred but not essential.
Responsibilities:
- Type up data from old paper documents into our new database
- Check own work and work of other clerks to ensure accuracy
- Update existing data in the database as required
- Locate data in the database and pass it on as required
- Store and index paper documents after transcription
Skills and experience:
- Fast, accurate typing skills; touch typists preferred
- Good working knowledge of computers and office equipment
- Excellent knowledge of word processors, spreadsheets and related programmes
- Exceptional attention to detail
- Basic knowledge of databases and management
- SQL knowledge preferred but not essential
- Experience with data entry preferred
Questions: set your own
These are the questions that the interviewer or interviewers will ask of the learner. You can set your own questions by clicking ‘Add Question’, then typing your question into the box that appears.
When writing your own questions, keep in mind the requirements and responsibilities outlined in the job description and aim to test at least one with each question. Note that you are limited to a maximum of 10 questions, to keep the session length manageable.
Feel free to take inspiration from one of our examples.
How do you ensure that the data you enter is accurate? Can you give an example of a time when you had to double-check your work?
Can you describe a time when you had to manage multiple tasks at once?
How comfortable are you with handling cash and processing transactions?
Why are you interested in working at The New Curiosity Shop? What do you think you can bring to the role?
Can you tell me about a time when you provided excellent customer service? What was the situation and how did you respond?
Questions: generate with AI
The AI can generate up to 10 questions for you based on the job title, company name and description that you’ve entered. Once you’ve filled out those fields, simply select the number of questions you want in the ‘Questions number’ box and click ‘Generate questions’. These AI-generated questions will then appear on the form for you to edit or reject if you want to.
Interviewers
You can select up to three characters here to conduct the interview. Each has a distinct personality and difficulty level: Leon is quite easy-going and is generally very friendly; Kel is detail-oriented and will be unhappy with vague or minimal answers; and Cora is stern and difficult to win over.
These personalities govern their verbal and emotional responses to each of the learner’s answers, not the questions that they ask. They will only ask the questions in the list, along with occasional follow-up questions, if enabled. If you select multiple interviewers, the interview questions will be divided between them at random.
Toggle help
If this is enabled, the learner will have access to a ‘Help me’ button in the app. Clicking the button will generate two pieces of advice: one on how to give a relevant answer using experience learners may have, and one on how to use the CAR or STAR techniques to structure their answer. This second point will adjust to whichever of the two you have selected as the interview response structure.
Toggle follow-up questions
If this is enabled, the interviewers will be able to ask follow-up questions after the learner gives their response. These questions are AI-generated and based solely on the content of the learner’s response. They do not count toward the number of questions set in the Questions section, so note that enabling this can make your interview longer than anticipated.
Try your roleplay
Go to My Modules, click Actions next to your AI Roleplay template (e.g., Debating), then select Play Module. Look for your customisation—and start playing!