Not all of us can ace our job interview each time we have one. We can get caught off guard by a question, we’re nervous, we address the interviewer by the wrong name, or our interview skills are just not at their best yet. When a job interview goes wrong the best thing job seekers can do is learn from it. Most of the time, we tend to be hard on ourselves, and it could be that we didn’t mess up as badly as we had thought. Here are some steps you can take to fix and move on from a bad job interview.
After a bad job interview, we feel like we’ve just lost all hope. We don’t feel at our best after failing at something we felt we would be good at. It’s important to re-adjust your defeatist attitude, shift it away from the negative aspects of what happened and turn those mistakes into lessons learned. As Forbes states, it’s no use in beating yourself up about it. First off, think about what it is exactly that you did wrong that made you think this was a bad job interview with an employer. Once you have identified what you did wrong, you can take the steps to correct it so in the next job interview you can avoid making that same mistake. Take this not as a defeat, but as a learning experience.
Not all hope is lost with a bad job interview. Job seekers can follow-up with employers after the interview in an attempt to change their initial perception. Your thank you note is your best chance at making amends with the employer. It won’t completely change their idea of you because you can’t go back in time and re-interview, but you can highlight the good things that you did do in your interview. Don’t make excuses for your bad job interview though. Instead, address anything you failed to address during the interview that you wanted to cover.
If you didn’t answer questions as best you could during the job interview, than you can re-address them in the thank you letter. You can also reiterate anything you think the interviewer didn’t catch, highlight your skills and experience again, and mention something about the company that you forgot in the job interview initially. As always with any letter, thank them for their time. Be cordial and professional. Don’t ask to re-interview because that is unlikely to happen.
After you send your thoughtful thank you letter to the employer, wait about a week to hear back. If you don’t receive a call then it’s likely you didn’t get the job. If that’s the case, don’t sweat it. It could be that despite the job interview, there were other factors they considered in the hiring process. When it comes to being hired, there are numerous factors that are out of your control. You may not have been qualified enough or your personality didn’t fit in with the office corporate culture. These are things you can’t control, but the good thing is that you took responsibility of your actions and tried to make them better. You ended your job interview on a good note with your thank you letter and did what you could. Most importantly, you have become a better job candidate with a better set of interviewing skills. Take note of your mistakes and be sure to improve them in your next job interview.
Have you ever had a bad job interview with an employer? Were you able to come out on top? Let us know about it in the comments section below!
IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by plindberg
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