This post, written by me, was originally posted on Fiscal Phoenix. The content is reposted with permission.
I recently wrote about what happens when a good job interview goes bad. It’s a terrible experience to know that you’ve blown an opportunity to get promoted or move laterally into a better position. But it’s not something that we can use as reason to never try again.
Recovering from a bad job interview takes time. Your confidence is shaken. You’re frustrated with the situation you caused. You’re angry that you let yourself screw up. You’re upset because you don’t think you’ll get another opportunity like that again. The list of negative emotions resulting from a bad job interview is infinite. But you can’t let it get to you. You need to take the situation and learn from it, and then move on.
Here are a few tips for moving on from a bad job interview:
- Allow yourself to feel all those emotions. Talk about how you’re feeling. If you need to cry or scream, do it. It’s healthy and perfectly acceptable. It’s hard to move on from a bad event if you don’t deal with it.
- Objectively review the interview. When we’re in the thick of our emotions, it’s difficult to think objectively about what went down. Once you’re not as emotional, sit down with your spouse or a friend or even just a pen and paper and talk about what happened. Make a list of everything you did wrong; don’t just blame the interview panel. You need to own what happened.
- Focus on what you can do to improve next time. Were you visibly nervous? Horribly unprepared to talk about your skills? Did you have a poor understanding of the company and/or position? How about your attire? Did you completely answer the question the interviewer was asking or did you skirt the question? If you find a deficiency in any of these areas, work on them for your next interview.
- Practice. This seems ridiculous but whenever I would have a job interview, I practice my answers to anticipated questions (stock questions like “how do you handle conflict” and “what are your weaknesses”). I once had the opportunity to meet with a professional job coach (for free!) and he told me that practicing was the key to success. He also told me that you should go into any job interview with 3 things that you want to make sure you impress upon the panel. Practice these 3 things as well.
- Try again. Do not let yourself get so dejected from one bad interview that you convince yourself to never try again. You must keep applying and interviewing in order to get better (and to put the bad one even further behind you). One blown job interview is not the end of your career advancement. Trust me on that. Less than two years after my horrible interview, I was in a better job with even higher pay. Why? Because I refused to let it stop me.
I don’t know one person who’s interviewed perfectly every time. I think in order to get better, we have to mess up. We need to make those mistakes so we can improve our skills. Messing up gives us a chance to pause and reflect on our weakness, making us more viable candidates for the next position.
Readers, what lessons have you learned from bombing at a job interview? How did you recover and move on?
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[…] Money asked the question “how do you practice for an interview?” in the comments on my post, Recovering from a bad job interview. I thought it was a great question and rather than just replying in the comments, I’d write an […]
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[…] Post navigation ← My Black Friday strategy Preparing for a Skype interview Posted on November 26, 2012 by Jana Last week, I talked about how to prepare for a traditional job interview. This time we’re going to talk about preparing for another type of interview, one that’s becoming more and more common. Like the question about how to prepare for a job interview, this point was raised in the comments on my post, Recovering from a bad job interview. […]
Jana,
My job security and healthy relationship with my employer has kept me here for almost three years, so I’m actually out of practice for an interview.
I’d like to think I could walk into one cold and impress a potential employer, but now I’m not sure.
How do you practice? Do you have a friend act as the interviewer? Or do you just use a mirror? I’m curious!
-Christian L. @ Smart Military Money
Love this question and I’m totally going to respond in a post!
I had a similar experience with a recent skype interview. I should have practiced ahead of time but I had a million other things going on leading up to it. I felt awkward and uncomfortable. Needless to say I never heard back from them. 🙁
Budget & the Beach recently posted…Question for Readers: Do I take the leap?
I’ve never had a Skype interview but I’d imagine that there’s a whole host of extra circumstances that go along with preparing for that. Like making sure your house is free from distractions and your internet connection is excellent. Or, in my case, that Skype doesn’t crap out on you!
Nice post and good tips. The times I’ve had this happen I go back in my mind over the interview and determine what I could’ve done differently. I actually do this as a practice after any interview to make sure I am sharp.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted…Frugal Friday: Posts That Ruled This Week, the Election is Over Edition!
Don’t take it personally. You’re not going to nail every job interview. Learn from it. There’s a learning moment or two you can gather from each interview to make your next one better. Move on. Don’t let a bad one cause your next one to be bad. Those are all things you’ve touched on very well but are so critical. I’ve done probably over a hundred interviews in my life, but have had nowhere near that number of job offers, so it’s just about getting better and learning from them.
Money Beagle recently posted…Who Paid For The Flu Shot?
The worst job interview I ever had occured when I was very sick with a high fever.I was supposed to shadow the resident for a half day and then interview with the center director. I literally almost passed out but somehow managed to excuse myself, and had to go sit in the bathroom with my head between my knees to keep from hitting the deck. Needless to say, I did not get the job. In retrospect, not getting that job was one of the best things that ever happened because I ended up moving close to where I am now. My life would have been so different had I gotten that job. Most likely not as good.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted…Can’t Take My Eyes Off These Blogs #13-Veteran’s Edition
Kim, that’s a great way of looking at it. Sometimes when we mess up a job interview, it’s actually for the best. We could have wound up in a job that might have seemed great at the time but would have prevented us from going down a much better path.
Definitely practice! I had a job interview which I totally bombed. I went in thinking it was for a different position (the secretary had my application confused or something) so I couldn’t answer a lot of the questions. I still cringe when I think about it!
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