1 min lesson
Budget your day backwards from the demo
Take this situation: "It's the paid onsite. Two hours in, you realize the brief is vaguer than you assumed and you're not sure you're building the right thing. What do you do?" Lead with your decision, then add the reason.
Step 1 of 2
- Behavior
- AI usage
- Reads as a win
- Drives Cursor hard, verifies, rejects bad output
- Reads as a flag
- Pastes raw model output without judgment
- Behavior
- Scoping
- Reads as a win
- Walking skeleton first, then hardens
- Reads as a flag
- Builds wide, nothing works end to end
- Behavior
- Slack
- Reads as a win
- Sharp questions, acts on answers
- Reads as a flag
- Silent all day or asks to be told what to do
- Behavior
- Presentation
- Reads as a win
- Tight demo, owns tradeoffs and cuts
- Reads as a flag
- ‘It mostly works’ with no clear story
| Behavior | Reads as a win | Reads as a flag |
|---|---|---|
| AI usage | Drives Cursor hard, verifies, rejects bad output | Pastes raw model output without judgment |
| Scoping | Walking skeleton first, then hardens | Builds wide, nothing works end to end |
| Slack | Sharp questions, acts on answers | Silent all day or asks to be told what to do |
| Presentation | Tight demo, owns tradeoffs and cuts | ‘It mostly works’ with no clear story |
Interview move
Budget your day backwards from the demo. Decide your demo moment first, protect the last 60-90 minutes for making it work and rehearsing the narrative and let that deadline discipline your scope. A working thin slice you can defend beats an ambitious half-build every time.