How to Use Nora AI: The Complete Guide to Our AI Mock Interviewer

Nora is a voice-based AI mock interviewer. You talk to it like a real recruiter, no typing, and it adapts the questions to your target role, pushes back on weak answers, and gives you a detailed, scored breakdown afterward. The idea is simple: most interview prep is passive (reading, watching, rehearsing in your head), and people freeze in the real thing because they have never actually said their answers out loud. Nora makes you practice out loud under realistic pressure, so the real interview feels like a repeat.

This guide walks through the entire flow: setting up your interview, choosing the right mode for your field, taking the mock, and reading the feedback report, which is honestly the best part. Start to finish, a session takes about 20 minutes.

Here is the short version:

* Set up: add your target company and role. Resume and job description are optional.

* Pick a mode that matches the round you are facing.

* Take a voice interview, roughly 10 questions in about 20 minutes.

* Get a full scored report with a transcript, recording, question-by-question analysis, and an action plan.

Step 1: Set Up Your Interview

Head to interview.norahq.com and open the AI Mock Interviewer. You have a few inputs, and the key thing to know is that most of them are optional.

* Resume (optional): upload a PDF or DOCX, up to 10MB. It helps Nora ask about your actual background, but you do not need it to start.

* Job description (optional): paste the job description straight from LinkedIn if you have it. This sharpens the questions to the specific role.

* Company and position (the important one): when you enter a company name and position, Nora pulls real questions that were actually asked in interviews at that company, from our advanced question bank. This is what makes a Nora mock feel like the real thing instead of generic practice.

The rule of thumb: the more context you give, the better Nora tailors the interview. But if all you have is a company and a role, that is enough to get a realistic, targeted session.

Step 2: Choose Your Interview Mode

Nora gives you interview modes so you can practice the specific kind of round you are about to face, not one generic catch-all. For general roles you get four:

* Behavioral Mode: all behavioral questions. Best if your weak spot is telling your stories the STAR way.

* Standard Mode: a mix of behavioral and technical. This is the one we recommend for most people, because it is the closest to what recruiters actually ask in real life.

* Technical Mode: all technical questions. Use this when you have a technical round coming up and want to drill it.

* Salary Negotiation: focused on the pay and benefits conversation, so you can practice talking numbers without underselling yourself.

If you are not sure which to pick, keep it on Standard. It is a good mix of both, and it maps to how most real interviews actually run.

Specialized Modes for Nursing and Cabin Crew

Nora is built for verticals that generic tools ignore, so the modes change to match how those fields actually hire.

For nursing, the modes map to the real stages of a nursing hire:

* Recruiter Screen: qualifications, availability, motivation, and pay. The first HR call, where you nail your quick pitch and your "why this hospital."

* Nursing Manager Interview: behavioral, situational, and culture-fit questions. The main round where most offers are won or lost, so you practice your stories the STAR way.

* Specialty Clinical: clinical knowledge and patient scenarios by specialty, common for ICU, ER, and L&D. Practice clinical reasoning, prioritization, and safety under pressure.

* Salary Negotiation: talk base pay, shift differentials, and benefits.

For flight attendants and cabin crew, the modes match the airline hiring process:

* HireVue Interview: replicates the recorded screen airlines use as a first filter. One-way questions to camera, no follow-ups, just you and a timer. This is the format most candidates find hardest, and almost nothing else simulates it.

* Live Virtual Interview: behavioral, situational, and values-fit questions. The best mode for overall practice, a full conversational round where you drill your STAR stories and service scenarios.

* Standard Interview: a mix of behavioral and technical.

* Salary Negotiation: the pay and benefits conversation.

Pick the mode that matches the exact round on your calendar, and practice that.

Step 3: Take the Mock Interview

Once you hit Get Started, you will see a quick onboarding screen with a few tips. Nora works on both desktop and mobile, browser-friendly either way, but for the smoothest experience:

* Ideally - Use a laptop and Google Chrome.

* Find a quiet, noise-free spot.

* Allow microphone and camera permissions when the browser asks.

A typical mock is about 10 questions and lasts around 20 minutes. When you are ready, hit Start Interview and Nora kicks off, greeting you and asking you to introduce yourself, exactly like a real recruiter would.

Answering is simple: click to start your answer, speak naturally, and click to stop. Nora converts your speech to text and serves the next question instantly, following up on what you said as it goes. That back-and-forth is the point. You are getting reps saying your answers out loud under light pressure, which is the single thing that stops you freezing on the day.

Your Feedback Report: The Overview

This is where Nora earns its keep. The moment you finish, you get a detailed report. The Overview tab gives you the headline picture:

* Interview Score (out of 100): a quick read on how you did. It is marked subjective on purpose, so treat it as a direction to move in, not a verdict.

* Recruiter Notes: a short written debrief in three parts, an overall Overview, your Technical Skills, and your Soft Skills, written the way a recruiter would summarize you after the call.

* Interview Performance Breakdown: three scored dimensions. Clarity and Comprehension (how clearly you communicated), Friendliness and Warmth (how personable and engaged you came across), and Content Quality (whether you actually answered well and professionally, broken into Relevance and Professionalism sub-scores).

* Our Recommendations: Nora suggests other companies and roles where your skills would fit well, based on how you did.

* Next Steps: three ready-to-go actions. Redo this same interview to fix your mistakes, run a mock for a similar company, or run a mock for a similar position. One click and you are practicing the next one.

Going Deeper: Technical and Soft Skills

The left menu opens up the detailed breakdowns.

Technical Skills digs into how you presented your technical experience, calls out what landed, and gives resume and interview suggestions tied to your target role.

Soft Skills is where the real coaching lives. For it you get:

* A summary of how you came across.

* The behavioral questions Nora asked, each shown with your actual answer, Nora's analysis of what worked and what did not, and an example improved answer you can learn from. Fair warning: a lot of candidates end up basically memorizing those example answers, which is completely fine.

* Communication Feedback, flagging things like abrupt or unstructured responses.

* Time Management Feedback, on your pacing and whether your answers were the right length.

This question-by-question deep dive is the fastest way to see exactly which parts of your answers cost you, and how to fix them.

Transcript, Recording, TLDR Chat, and Your Action Plan

A few more tabs round out the report:

* Transcript: the full written record of your interview, plus a video recording of the whole session so you can rewatch yourself and catch habits you cannot feel in the moment.

* TLDR: this is a chatbot that already has the full context of your interview. Nora generates topics to explore, things like Did I Ramble?, Confidence Level, Storytelling Ability, and Company Fit, and you can tap one for a detailed explanation or just ask Nora anything about your performance. Because it knows your interview, the suggestions are specific to you, not generic advice.

* Action Plan: tell Nora when your real interview is (within 1-2 days, 1-2 weeks, 1-2 months, or 3+ months) and it builds a personalized game plan for what to do between now and then, on top of more mock interviews.

* Download Report: save the entire report to keep or share.

Getting Help and Getting the Most Out of Nora

If you ever get stuck, there is a live chat widget in the app. Open it to ask a question, report an issue, or request a feature, and you will reach the Nora team directly. You can also email our founder and CEO, Hannan Hussain, at hannan@norahq.com. Hannan is based in Palo Alto, is a UC Irvine alum, and built Nora after his own time as a software engineer at Tesla.

A few tips to get the most out of it:

* Always add the company and position. That is what unlocks the real, company-specific questions.

* Practice out loud, for real. Reading answers in your head is not the same as saying them. Treat the mock like the actual interview.

* Do more than one session. Real improvement comes from reps, so aim for several sessions across a few days, not one the night before.

* Use the example answers and the TLDR chat. Read the improved answers, then ask the chatbot to go deeper on your specific weak spots.

* Redo the interview. Run it again after fixing your mistakes and watch the score and feedback move.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Do I need to upload a resume?

No. The resume is optional. It helps Nora ask about your background, but you can start without it.

Do I need a job description?

Also optional. The one input we really recommend is your target company and position, because that is what lets Nora pull real questions actually asked at that company from our advanced question bank.

Can I use Nora on my phone?

Yes. Nora is both device and browser friendly, so it works on mobile and desktop. For the smoothest experience we suggest a laptop and Google Chrome.

How long does a mock interview take?

About 10 questions and roughly 20 minutes, though it can run 15 to 25 minutes depending on your answers.

Is the interview score accurate?

The score is a helpful signal, but it is subjective by design. Use it to track direction and improvement, not as a hard grade.

What do I actually get at the end?

An overall score, recruiter-style notes, a performance breakdown, a full transcript and video recording, question-by-question analysis with example answers, recommendations for other roles and companies, a personalized action plan, and a downloadable report.

How much does Nora cost?

Nora offers a free trial, and unlimited mock interviews and feedback are $15/month.

How do I get help or send feedback?

Use the in-app live chat to reach the team, or email our founder Hannan Hussain at hannan@norahq.com.