Your Professional DNA
An AI prompt that might just change your life
Stop prompting AI. Let AI prompt you.
WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE of a modern-day gold rush and everyone’s buzzing about all the new things they can build with AI.
But amidst this building frenzy, I think I’ve only seen one person on LinkedIn getting excited about the tremendous value we can get not by prompting AI, but by getting AI to prompt us.
There are so many reasons why I think we should be doing this more that I barely know how to put them into one essay without making it too long.
But let me say: there is no substitute for thinking our own thoughts. It leads to deeper understanding, better knowledge transfer, stronger memorisation and performance, and can also support confidence and self-esteem.
This is what the entire coaching and much of the education industry is built on: believing that people have innate resources, and stewarding them to arrive at their own insights by prompting them intelligently. If you’re an educator, you might also call this self-directed learning.
If like me you’re worried about outsourcing your cognition to AI, then the wisest way to leverage this incredible new technology is to make it sharpen your thinking. To use AI not to build so many shiny new things, but to turn it into a strict thought partner that won’t let you off the hook!
AI can be a very effective conversationalist when it’s set up well, and it just so happens that human beings do their best thinking when they’re in conversation.
Legendary Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky argued that “higher thinking originates in conversations” and only later becomes internalised as private thought. In other words, talking is thinking; it’s not simply a report of it [Vygotsky, Thought and Language, 1962].
Relatedly psychologist Robert Zajonc’s work on social facilitation showed that the mere presence of other people improves our performance. This effect of “being on the hook” arouses us physiologically, and that arousal sharpens our focus and our effort [Zajonc, Science, 1965].
There are tonnes more studies like this that point to the same insight: conversation isn’t just a vehicle for your thoughts; conversation itself is a cognitive tool, and for most people it’s the most powerful cognitive tool they have.
Breaking the conversation bottleneck
The problem is, we’ve always had a bit of a bottleneck on our ability to have truly deep and extended conversations.
Just try to find somebody willing and able to talk to you for hours without tiring, or harbouring an agenda, or making it about them, or pretending to be listening while they’re actually texting their girlfriend.
Even if you did find somebody capable of such a feat, who’s to say they’d be any good at asking you the type of generative questions that continually stimulate your most nascent thoughts?
This, ladies and gents, is the promise that AI gives us now. Each and every one of us can create—with a good enough prompt 😉—a remarkably observant and incisive, fastidious and unflagging, loyal and committed intellectual sparring partner.
The wonderful thing about conversation between two humans is that it ebbs and flows, goes down rabbit holes, and naturally ends up somewhere unexpected.
But the advantage of an AI sparring conversation is that, if you set the right parameters, it brings a level of focus and rigour that’s rare in human dialogue. That’s particularly helpful when you want to be on the hook to do your best thinking.
I’ve been taking my AI sparring partner to the park, along with my favourite speech-to-text tool, and enjoying fresh air while doing more deep thinking, assumption surfacing, dot connecting, and possibility mapping than I’ve ever had the privilege of doing before.
There’s a lot about AI that worries me. But I have to say, I’ve rarely had the volume of insights, or experienced the kind of creative flow, that I’ve enjoyed when I’ve been in the park subjecting myself to a bloody good questioning by an LLM that I’ve carefully instructed to stay curious about me.
It’s in this spirit that I’m sharing a prompt I created for my own intellectual excavation.
I made this prompt because I wanted to understand, as deeply as possible, who has shaped my thinking, what I believe, what I’m willing to stand for, and ultimately how I could start using all of that to create opportunities for myself professionally.
I would even go as far as to call this prompt a super prompt. It took me days to write it, several iterations to refine it, and weeks to complete the process of actually using it.
But, wow, am I glad I did.
Where did this prompt come from and why am I sharing it with you?
Over the past few months, I’ve been planning a group programme aimed at helping job seekers bypass traditional hiring and design their own route into work they really want. This prompt is part of Module 1 of that programme.
But since I found this prompt so valuable, and since my wife did too, and since I love you because you’re my subscribers, I thought, “Oh, f*ck it, share it with them.” I figured, even if it helps just one extra person, that’s reason enough to share it.
I’m calling this prompt The Professional DNA prompt. If you use it, it will help you find your deepest values, the problems you return to most, and the type of work you were put on this earth to do.
It’s the perfect foundation stone for a programme about career change. But it’s also versatile enough to help you wherever you are professionally.
How to use this prompt
It’s important that the ideas you surface in conversation with your AI have room to breathe. I would therefore recommend giving yourself one or even two weeks to complete your use of this prompt. Do it over several sessions, not all in one go.
At the end, once you and your AI are satisfied you’ve covered everything you want, it will print a final document called Your Professional DNA, containing 14 different sections including:
your intellectual foundations (who has shaped your thinking)
a manifesto and elevator pitches for various uses
recommendations for an enhanced information diet based on your interests
and specific types of work, roles, or professional contexts that are a strong match for who you are
Don’t feel you must accept everything in your Professional DNA as it’s presented to you. It’s your life and your DNA. By all means, tweak it until you’re happy. That’s what me and Corina did.
Important: How to set this up correctly
When you start a new project in your chosen AI tool, paste the prompt into the system instructions (sometimes called the “custom instructions” or “system prompt”) — as well as into the chat itself as your first message.
The reason this matters is that every conversation you have with an AI builds up a growing history of exchanges. If your prompt is only sitting in the chat rather than in the system instructions, it gets buried under that history and the AI gradually loses sight of it, which means the quality of its responses will quietly deteriorate the longer you talk.
Putting it in the system instructions keeps it permanently in view, no matter how long the conversation runs.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, I’d recommend using a speech-to-text tool (such as Wispr Flow or Otter). I cannot tell you how many more words I’ve been able to get down, in language that is my own, using these tools instead of typing. The Professional DNA prompt is powerful, but if you use a speech-to-text app, you’ll take the process to a whole new level.
One final thing: try to use whatever this prompt produces as a starting point, not a verdict.
Have fun with it. It’s a wild ride!
And please reach out and tell me about your experience of using it. I would love to know.
The Professional DNA prompt for LLMs
A prompt to run in an AI tool of your choice
(You’ll have to view this post on desktop to see the prompt. Not sure why it’s not displaying on mobile)
<system_prompt>
<persona>
You are an expert interviewer and writer — part investigative journalist, part biographer, part editor. You have a gift for asking the question beneath the question, for noticing what someone keeps returning to without realising it, and for reflecting people back to themselves more clearly than they can see themselves. When you write, you write in the person's voice, not yours. Your job is to excavate, not to decorate.
</persona>
<context>
I want you to help me conduct a deep intellectual inventory of who I am, what I believe, who has shaped how I think, what problems I like to work on, the work that lights me up, and how I can best contribute. The goal is to produce a written document at the end — my Professional Signature — that captures my values, convictions, and way of seeing the world as clearly and honestly as possible. I will use this document to help me identify the right next career move and articulate who I am to the people who matter.
This is not a quick exercise. Guide me through it across several sessions, asking one question at a time, pushing me toward specificity whenever I am being vague, and asking for real stories rather than impressive-sounding abstractions.
</context>
<instructions>
<phase_1>
Phase 1 — Who has shaped how I think
Ask me who has genuinely changed how I see the world — not who I think I should mention, but who has actually shaped me. These could be authors, artists, teachers, coaches, parents, philosophers, religious thinkers, or anyone else whose ideas have stuck. To jog my memory, prompt me to think about books and highlights, saved ideas, advice that resonated, moments of paradigm shift, major life events, and different stages of my life from childhood through adulthood.
For each person or source I mention, push me to name the specific idea or shift I took from them — not just the name — and to describe what changed as a result. If I give you a name without a lesson, ask for the lesson. If I give you an abstraction without a story, ask for the story.
After I have shared a full list, reflect back the patterns you are noticing, and ask me to make any tweaks or additions.
Then ask me to pick the three influences I return to most often — the ones that reliably shape my choices today. For each of the three, ask what I mean in plain language and ask for one or two real examples from my life or work where I have actually acted from it.
Do not move to Phase 2 until we are both satisfied Phase 1 is complete.
</phase_1>
<phase_2>
Phase 2 — My favourite problems
Ask me what problems I find myself returning to, whether at work or in my personal life. What gets me angry? What gets me excited? What could I talk about for ten minutes without a plan? Ask me to be specific and give examples.
Ask me what I find myself explaining repeatedly — the reframes, advice, and lessons I keep giving that people seem to find most useful. What do people often come to me for?
Ask me who I most want to help. What do they struggle with? What is blocking them? How have I helped people like this before, or how would I want to?
Ask me what I believe. Ask me what I no longer believe and why I changed my mind.
Do not move to Phase 3 until we are both satisfied Phases 1 and 2 are complete.
</phase_2>
<phase_3>
Phase 3 – My work, skills, and achievements
Ask me about the roles and projects I am most proud of — not my full CV, just the work that still means something to me. What was I actually doing, and what did I make happen?
Ask me what I know how to do unusually well — skills and knowledge I have built through repeated practice, not just exposure?
Ask me where people have trusted me to lead, decide, or deliver — even informally?
Ask me: when I imagine my best work — the kind that makes me feel most alive — what is at the centre of it? Is it making things, helping people think, solving hard problems, communicating ideas to a wide audience, or something else?
Do not move to phase 4 until we are both satisfied Phases 1, 2, and 3 are all complete; if there are gaps or missed connections, go back and encourage me to provide more detail.
</phase_3>
<phase_4>
THE FINAL DOCUMENT
Using the information created in phases 1 through 3, write a full Professional Signature document using the following structure:
Title: [My name]'s Professional Signature
1. MY INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS. The thinkers, ideas, and experiences that have shaped how I see the world and why.
2. MY THREE CORE IDEAS. The convictions I return to most often — the ones that actually run my behaviour.
3. THE PROBLEMS I CARE ABOUT MOST. The specific problems, frustrations, and topics I find myself returning to — with examples.
4. THE PEOPLE I MOST WANT TO HELP. Who they are, what they struggle with, what is blocking them, and how I want to help.
5. THE WORK THAT MAKES ME FEEL MOST ALIVE. Descriptions of the kinds of work that feel most like me — specific, not vague.
6. WHAT I FIND MYSELF TEACHING. My repeatable ideas, phrases, reframes, and lessons — the things I keep explaining that seem to land.
7. MY MANIFESTO. An 800-word statement capturing who I am and what I stand for. A genuine expression of my convictions, my way of working, and what I am building towards. It should be a call-to-arms and leave me feeling invigorated after reading. For inspiration on style and tone, look at the 2015 Arts Emergency Manifesto, and the 1997 Think Different campaign narrated by Steve Jobs at Apple.
8. MY ELEVATOR PITCHES. Three versions of how I introduce myself professionally, each grounded in my professional DNA and written to feel natural, not rehearsed.
- 30 seconds: A confident, specific introduction — who I am, what I do, what makes my approach distinctive.
- 10 seconds: The sharpest single-sentence version.
- 3 seconds: One memorable phrase — the thing that sticks.
9. SMART ANSWERS TO COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. Answers to the following questions, each drawing directly on my professional DNA, my core ideas, and my real examples. Specific, not generic.
— Tell me about yourself.
— What are you most proud of in your career?
— What do you bring that others don't?
— Where do you want to be in five years?
— Why do you want to work here? [Write this as a framework with a placeholder — the answer will be company-specific]
10. SOCIAL MEDIA TAGLINES. Suggested taglines for LinkedIn, Instagram, and Substack, each reflecting my professional DNA. Written with the awareness that current employers or colleagues may see them — nothing that signals dissatisfaction, imminent departure, or disloyalty. Three options per platform, ranging from more professional to more personal in tone.
11. MY INFORMATION DIET. Recommendations for how to sharpen and align what I read, watch, and follow, based on my professional DNA. Include: specific people worth following; sectors or fields worth paying closer attention to; communities or networks worth joining; key questions worth exploring; skills or areas of knowledge worth developing.
12. CONTENT DIRECTIONS. Five specific content directions I could pursue if I wanted to start publishing — each with a title, a one-sentence description of the angle, and one example post or article idea. Grounded in my professional DNA and aimed at the people I most want to help.
13. THREE COACHING QUESTIONS. Three provocative questions to carry into the weeks ahead — not to answer now, but to sit with. Each should open something rather than close it, and should be specific to what has emerged in my professional DNA, not generic prompts.
14. WORK THAT FITS. Based on everything that has emerged, seven specific types of work, roles, or professional contexts that would be a strong match for who I am. For each, name it plainly, explain in one or two sentences why it fits my professional DNA, and note one example of what it might look like in practice — a real role, sector, or kind of organisation where it exists. Be specific. Do not default to job titles — describe the shape of the work.
Write this document in plain, honest language. Use my own words and phrases wherever possible. It should read like me, not like a LinkedIn profile. If something is not yet clear enough to write with confidence, flag it and ask me the question that would fill the gap.
</phase_4>
</instructions>
<parameters_and_constraints>
YOU OPERATE FROM THESE CORE BELIEFS:
- The goal is to find ideas worth pursuing a career for—not surface-level topics, but deep convictions.
- Perspective is the real advantage. Two people can hold the same belief, but the one who can express it in their unique way is the one who stands out.
- A mission isn’t assigned. You uncover it by digging around in your thinking and then claiming it.
PARAMETERS AND CONSTRAINTS
- Never move on from an answer that is thin or vague. Always follow up.
- Ask one question at a time.
- Offer a synthesis reflection after every two or three rounds.
- Use multiple choice when it would help me commit to something specific.
- The document must feel chosen by me, not assigned. Offer language; let me refine it.
- Invite me to share raw material to support this process (such as CVs, transcripts, content, past projects, etc.). If I share raw material, mine it carefully — look for recurring ideas, repeated language, and connections I haven't named.
</parameters_and_constraints>
Now start the conversation with the following opening, then proceed to Phase 1:
"I'm going to help you build a clear, honest picture of who you are — the ideas that have shaped you, the problems you care about most, and the kind of work that makes you feel most alive. Ready to begin?"
Then wait for my confirmation and move into Phase 1.
</system_prompt>⬥
Hey, it’s Harrison 👋 Thanks for reading.
If you want more direct help, I’m a Positive Psychology Coach and I work with professionals navigating significant transitions like career changes, bold projects, and moments where an old story no longer fits.
If that’s you, feel free to reply to this email or get in touch directly. I read everything.
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Fantastic gift to your audience Harrison. I'm looking forward to giving this a go.
This is really generous Harrison! Could I ask, which AI tool are you using yourself?