Interview Followup

Interview Followup

The 24-hour follow-up plus the debrief learning loop. Two jobs: send a sharp thank-you fast, and make sure this interview makes the next one better. Most candidates send the thank-you and skip the debrief. The debrief is where each interview improves the next.

Boundary with interview-debrief: use this skill when there's no recording. It works from the user's memory of the round. If the user recorded the interview and has a transcript, use interview-debrief instead. It does a deeper, evidence-based analysis and drafts the follow-ups from what was actually said.

When to use

• "I just finished my interview", "help me write the thank-you", "debrief me on that round"
• Ideally within a few hours of the interview, while it's fresh. The thank-you is time-sensitive (aim for <24h) and the debrief details fade fast

Inputs

• Reads: pipeline/applications/<id>-...md (the role, the prep pack, interviewer names), workspace/output/<id>-interview-prep.md (what you expected to be asked), workspace/stories/story-bank.md, templates/outreach-templates.md (#5, the post-interview thank-you)
• Needs from user: who they met (names/titles if not already recorded), and their memory of the conversation, which the debrief questions below pull out

Workflow

Part 1: Thank-you note (fast, gated)

1. Gather the specifics. Ask for the interviewer name(s) and one genuinely interesting thing from the conversation. The note is worthless if it's generic. It must reference something real that was actually discussed.
2. Draft from template #5 in templates/outreach-templates.md: thanks, one specific point from the conversation, one line reinforcing fit, and, if a question was fumbled, one clean sentence that answers it better (see Part 3). Under ~120 words. One note per interviewer if there were several, and personalize each with something distinct to that person, never a copy-paste.
3. Run the writing-quality skill as a gate. This is mandatory, because the thank-you is buyer-facing writing. Strip AI-slop tells ("I hope this finds you well", "I wanted to reach out"), keep it human and short. Do not present the draft until it has passed this gate.
4. Save the draft to output/<id>-thankyou-<interviewer>.md and present it for the user's approval. Never auto-send. The user sends it themselves after reviewing.

Part 2: Structured debrief (the learning loop)

5. Run the debrief while it's fresh. Ask these, conversationally, and capture the answers:
   • What questions were you actually asked? (Especially any you didn't expect. Those are gold for the bank.)
   • What went well? Which answers landed, what did they react positively to?
   • What did you fumble? Where did you ramble, blank, or give a weak answer?
   • What did you learn about the role/team/company? New facts about the job, the manager, the priorities, the process, comp, timeline.
   • What's your gut read? How did the room feel: engaged, skeptical, going through the motions?
   • Likelihood? Their honest sense of advancing, and what the interviewer said about next steps/timing.

Part 3: Close the loop (this is the point)

6. Feed the story bank. For every new or unexpected question, append it to stories/story-bank.md. If it exposed a competency the bank doesn't cover, flag it as a gap. If the user fumbled a question, draft the stronger answer now (STAR, mapped to a real story) and store it with the question so next time it's ready. This is how story-bank compounds across a search.
7. Draft stronger answers for fumbles. For each fumbled question, write the crisp answer the user wishes they'd given. Optionally fold a one-sentence version into the thank-you note (Part 1). It is a graceful way to correct a weak moment while it still matters.
8. Update the application record pipeline/applications/<id>-...md: append to the Debrief section (date, round, questions asked, what went well, what to fix, gut read, next steps the interviewer named) and note the thank-you was drafted.
9. Update the tracker pipeline/tracker.csv: advance status (e.g. interviewing → final, or hold at interviewing if more rounds), set next_action and next_action_date (send the thank-you today, and record the expected decision or next-round date), and update notes with the one-line read.
10. Report the loop: thank-you path (awaiting the user's send), what got appended to the bank, and the tracker change.

Output

• Writes to:
  • workspace/output/<id>-thankyou-<interviewer>.md – the drafted note(s), writing-quality-passed, not sent
  • workspace/stories/story-bank.md – appended new questions + stronger answers (+ any new gap flags)
  • workspace/pipeline/applications/<id>-...md – Debrief section updated
  • workspace/pipeline/tracker.csv – status, next_action, next_action_date, notes updated
• Format: the thank-you follows template #5, the debrief follows the application-record Debrief section, and bank additions follow templates/story-template.md (or a compact Q→better-answer pair where a full STAR entry isn't warranted)

Rules & quality bar

• Thank-you within 24h, and specific. A generic note is worse than none. It must reference something that was genuinely discussed.
• writing-quality gate is mandatory before any note is shown. No exceptions. This is a writing-producing skill.
• Never auto-send. The human reviews and sends every note themselves. Drafts are saved and presented. Sending is the user's action.
• No fabrication. Don't invent enthusiasm, praise, or a conversation detail that didn't happen. If the user can't recall a specific, keep the note shorter rather than padding it.
• The debrief must close the loop, not just record it. The debrief matters because new questions land in the story bank and fumbles get a stronger answer before the next round, so the next interview starts ahead. Skipping Part 3 defeats the skill.
• Be honest in the debrief. If the gut read is bad, say so and reflect it in the tracker. A realistic pipeline beats an optimistic one.

Related skills

• Reads from: interview-prep (what was expected vs. what happened), story-bank, company-research
• Runs: writing-quality (mandatory gate on the thank-you note)
• Feeds: story-bank (new questions plus better answers, the compounding asset), application-tracker (status + next action), and improves the next interview-prep for later rounds
• Escalates to: offer-negotiation when a debrief signals an offer is coming