Had a bit of a car crash job interview?
At this point you probably wish the world would swallow you up whole, but don’t fret, it’s happened to the best of us. After all, we’re only human and unfortunately things don’t always go exactly to plan.
You may feel like you’ve blown your chances of landing the job, but this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. It is possible to rectify faults after an interview, but it’s important for you to weigh up whether the error is notable enough to be acknowledged or if it’s best to just move on.
In the heat of the moment it’s tempting to do some urgent damage reversal, but don’t rush into things in a fluster. Take the time to cool down, identify what went wrong and then make a plan about how you can counteract the mistakes made.
Here are a few tips for turning a bad job interview around.
1) Don’t overthink things.
Reliving every little detail of the interview over and over again in your mind isn’t going to change anything, so save yourself the torment! You’ll only make yourself panic more and chances are that some of the things you’re worrying about weren’t even picked up by the interviewer.
The exception to this is if you missed out some crucial information when answering a question and feel that it will make a significant difference to your chances of being hired. In this case there may be something you can do about it.
2) Look at the full picture.
Sure you may feel that there were isolated moments of the job interview which could have gone better, but what was the overall tone? If as a whole you feel that it actually went well, then it probably isn’t worth confronting any mistakes you made and it may even help you to look at the negatives in a more positive light. It’s easy to be self-critical under stress, but the areas you excelled in will probably outweigh your downfalls, so don’t beat yourself up.
3) Send a follow up email.
Resist the urge to apologise for any mistakes you feel you made in your interview, as this will only flag up errors that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
It’s always recommended to send a thank you email after attending a job interview, so why not kill two birds with one stone? If there’s anything that you feel strongly about sharing with your interviewer, such as relevant experience or an overlooked responsibility in a previous role, now is your chance to slip it into conversation.
Before acting, it’s important for you to assess whether the issue is really worth addressing. Is it a make or break situation? If so, you can bring it up as a bit of an endnote to your thank you email; just keep it short. The best way to spin it is that it wasn’t a mistake and rather an after thought that you felt would be relevant to add after reflecting on your conversation.
4) Learn from your mistakes.
Use all of your mistakes as a learning curve. Sometimes these blunders have to occur so that you know what to work on in future, so turn those negatives into positives! If nerves were your downfall, perhaps there are some techniques you can try to calm yourself down ahead of an interview in the future. Whereas if it was a lack of preparation that caused the problem, make sure you do all the required research ahead of your next one! A friend or family member may even be willing to help you practice. Now there’s an idea!
5) Keep calm and carry on.
A lot of the time we don’t recognise our mistakes until we reflect back at an interview once it’s over, however if you notice that you’ve slipped up while you’re still in there, it’s essential that you don’t get yourself in a flap! Remain poised and focus on answering the next question to the best of your ability. If there’s something you forgot to mention, wait until later on to bring it up as you may be able to fit it in with another question being asked. You still have the chance to turn things around, even if you think you’ve let yourself down earlier on, so don’t give up trying.
The same goes for your job search in general. Just because this particular interview didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to nail the next one! Put it behind you and move on. The more interviews you go for, the more confident you’ll become.
