About a Time
Behavioral interview prep, done once

Never blank on “tell me about a time” again.

Write down your best work once. About a Time helps you shape it into sharp, specific stories, matches them to the job you’re applying for, and shows which ones you’re ready to tell.

  • 3 days free, no card
  • Your notes never train AI
  • Export to text, Markdown, or JSON

Not sure what you’ll be asked? Preview the 88 questions interviewers actually ask

  1. 01

    Capture

    Jot down a project, a hard call, or a miss while the details are fresh. Autosave keeps every word.

  2. 02

    Shape

    Pick STAR or another format. Story Coach flags a vague action or a result without numbers.

  3. 03

    Match

    Paste a job posting to see what the role emphasizes and which of your stories fit.

  4. 04

    Rehearse

    Answer real questions out loud on a clock, rate each attempt, and walk in with a printed prep sheet.

Why not a doc?

You already have a doc of stories. It can’t prep you.

Most people keep a notes file of interview examples. It fills up, then goes quiet. About a Time reads what you wrote and tells you what’s missing before an interviewer does.

A doc About a Time

Holds the story exactly as you typed it, weak spots and all.

Story Coach flags an Action that says “we” but never “I”, and a Result with no number in it.

Can’t tell you which questions you still have no answer for.

Checks 88 common behavioral questions against your stories and shows the gaps.

Leaves you scrolling for the right example the night before.

Paste the job posting and get a best-fit shortlist, ordered the way you’ll tell it, on one printable page.

Story Coach · Try it

Turn a rambling memory into a tight answer.

Interviewers listen for what you did and what changed because of it. Story Coach checks every story for exactly that, so you can fix the weak spots before you’re in the room. The card here is live: edit the Result and watch the checks change.

  • Flags an Action section that says “we” but never what you did
  • Catches results without a number, a before-and-after, or a dollar amount
  • Shows how ready each story is, from first note to fully structured
A live example story titled “Reduced API latency by 70%”. Edit the Action or Result and Story Coach updates its checks. It currently shows 6 of 7 checks complete.
Reduced API latency by 70%86% ready
Situation
Payment requests were timing out during peak traffic, and successful transactions had fallen 15%.
Story coach
  • Give the story a memorable title
  • Describe the actions you took
  • Make your personal contribution clear
  • Explain the outcome
  • Quantify the result (a number with a unit, or before → after)
  • Tag at least one interview competency
  • Fill in every STAR section
Try it: add a number to the Result, or
Job-posting match

Paste the job posting. See which stories to bring.

Every posting signals what the team cares about. Drop it into an interview kit and About a Time highlights the competencies it stresses, shows which you’ve already covered, and suggests your best-fit stories.

  • Spots the gaps while you still have time to prepare
  • Adds the strongest matches to your shortlist in one click
  • Runs in your browser, with no AI service reading your notes
Example job posting match: the posting emphasizes influence, collaboration, leadership, prioritization, and ambiguity. Two competencies are covered by the kit, two exist in the story library, and one has no story yet. Two best-fit stories are suggested.
Practice with purpose

Know what you can answer, and what still needs work.

Stop rereading the stories you already know by heart. Spend your prep time where it counts.

A question bank that checks your coverage

88 common behavioral questions, each matched to the stories that can answer it. Find a gap and start a draft already tagged for that question.

Example question bank showing a story ready for 62 of 88 common questions, with one gap offering to draft a story.

Confidence and practice tracking

Rate how sure you feel telling each story and log when you last practiced it. Then sort by least confident or least practiced to decide what to rehearse tonight.

Example of stories sorted least confident first, each showing a one-to-five confidence rating and when it was last practiced.
Question bank and practice mode

The questions interviewers actually ask, and what each one is really testing.

88 behavioral questions grouped by the competency behind them, each with the interviewer’s notes: alternate phrasings, what a strong answer contains, and the follow-ups to expect. Then practice the way it counts: out loud, one question at a time, on a clock.

  • Start with the 16 essentials that show up in almost every interview
  • A clock that tells you when to set the scene and when to land the result
  • Rate each attempt Blanked, Rough, or Nailed it, and leave with a short list worth a story
Preview the question bank
Example practice session: one question, a clock reading 1:12 with the note “Good length. Land the result and stop.”, and three ratings to choose from: Blanked, Rough, and Nailed it.
Interview kits

One prep sheet for every interview on your calendar.

Build a shortlist for each role, put your strongest stories first, and track the interview date and where things stand. Print it, copy it, or keep it open in another tab.

  • Order stories the way you plan to tell them
  • Track status, from scheduled through offer
  • See which common competencies the shortlist still misses
Example list of three interview kits, each with a company, interview date, status, and number of shortlisted stories.
And the details

Everything you need, nothing you don’t.

6 story formats

STAR, CAR, SOAR, PAR, SHARE, or free-form. Switch anytime without losing what you wrote.

13 competencies, plus yours

Tag stories with common interview themes, or add your own, like Mentoring or Security incidents.

Coverage map

See at a glance which competencies have a story and which are still gaps.

Printable prep sheets

Print a clean one-pager of your shortlisted stories, or copy it as text or Markdown.

Autosave that holds on

Lose Wi-Fi mid-sentence? Drafts stay on your device and sync when you reconnect.

Your stories, portable

Export plain text, Markdown, or a full JSON backup you can import later. No lock-in.

Private by design

Your career stories stay yours.

Interview stories are full of names, numbers, and things that went wrong. They belong in a notebook, not a data pipeline.

Read the Privacy Policy
  • No product analytics, ad trackers, or tracking pixels.
  • Only infrastructure request logs, kept to diagnose errors and abuse.
  • Your notes never train AI models and are never sent to an AI provider.
  • Search, filters, and job-posting matching run in your browser, not on our servers.
  • No passwords to leak. You sign in with a one-time email link or code.
  • Delete your account anytime, with a 30-day window to change your mind.
Pricing

Everything included. Free for 3 days, then one simple plan.

Full access from the first minute, on every device, with no card on file. Prepping for an interview this week? That’s enough time to build your stories and a kit. When the free 3 days end, your notebook pauses and everything you wrote is saved for 30 days, so you can subscribe whenever you’re ready.

Monthly
3 months

Both plans include every feature and renew until you cancel. Cancel anytime from Settings.

  • Story bankUp to 1,000 stories with Story Coach in six formats
  • Interview kitsJob-posting match, shortlists, status tracking, and printable prep sheets
  • Question bank88 common questions matched to your stories
  • Practice trackingConfidence ratings and last-practiced dates
  • Your dataPlain-text, Markdown, and JSON exports
Questions

Good to know before you start.

How much does it cost?

One plan, billed monthly or every 3 months, with every feature included. Your first 3 days are free with no card on file, and you can cancel anytime from Settings.

Why a 3-month plan?

Most job searches take about that long. The 3-month plan covers a whole search for less than paying month to month, and it renews every 3 months until you cancel, so a longer search doesn’t leave you without your stories. Prefer to keep it short? The monthly plan is the same notebook, billed one month at a time.

How is this different from a Google Doc or Notion page?

A doc stores your stories. It doesn’t read them. About a Time checks each story for the things interviewers listen for (what you did, what changed, and by how much), tells you which common questions you still can’t answer, and picks the stories that fit the job posting in front of you. It’s the difference between a filing cabinet and a coach.

Do I need a credit card to start?

No. Your first account gets 3 days of full access with no card on file, and nothing is ever charged unless you choose a plan. The free trial is one per person, so if you’ve already used one, you can still sign in and try the notebook in preview mode before subscribing.

What happens after 3 days?

Your notebook pauses and nothing is charged. Your stories and kits are saved for 30 days, so you can subscribe whenever you’re ready and pick up exactly where you left off. After 30 days without a plan, they’re permanently deleted. We email you before your access ends and again before anything is deleted.

Can I cancel? Is there a refund?

You can cancel anytime from Settings. You keep full access through the end of the period you paid for, and the plan doesn’t renew. When you cancel, we email you a reminder to download your stories as plain text, Markdown, or a JSON backup before that date, and your notebook stays saved, paused, in case you come back. Because the free 3 days let you try everything first, payments already made aren’t refunded.

Can I see the questions before signing up?

You can preview the question bank: the 13 competencies interviewers are probing, the 16 questions that show up in almost every loop, one question with the full interviewer’s notes, and a sample practice run on the clock. The complete bank of 88, with notes and follow-ups for every question, unlimited practice, and matching against your own stories, is part of your notebook, and your first 3 days are free.

Does job-posting matching use AI?

No. It compares the posting against phrases linked to each competency, entirely in your browser. The posting is saved with your interview kit like any other note, and it isn't sent to an AI service.

Can I get my stories out?

Yes. Whenever your notebook is open, during the free 3 days or on a plan, you can download every story as plain text or Markdown, or a complete JSON backup you can import later.

Which story formats are supported?

STAR, CAR, SOAR, PAR, SHARE, and free-form. Each story keeps every section you've written, so switching formats never throws work away.

Can I switch between my laptop, tablet, and phone?

Yes. Sign in on each device with the same email, and your stories and kits stay in sync, including during your free 3 days. The phone is handy for a quick review before you walk in; a laptop or tablet is more comfortable for longer writing.

Interview preparation guides

Start with the stories you already have.

Practical ways to collect real examples and explain your contribution clearly. Free to read, no account needed.

All guides

Your next interview is a few good stories away.

Start with one. It takes about five minutes, and your first 3 days are on us.

Start writing, free for 3 days