What to Do If A Job Interview Has Gone Horribly Wrong

Everybody has come out of a job interview with the sickening feeling that it went horribly wrong, even if it has gone much better than you think. Everybody has their off days –  but there are ways of redeeming yourself. 

Here at Agile Recruit, we say that every interview (even “bad” ones) are an opportunity to learn, so let’s take a closer look at what you should do if you feel your interview has gone badly.

See It as A Learning Curve

One of the best things to do after struggling in an interview is to pinpoint all of the mistakes that you made. From this, you can learn from them and better yourself for the next interview you undergo. The best thing you can do after having an interview where you struggled is to learn from it. It can be too easy to beat yourself up about it and let the situation get the better of you. Instead, ask yourself how you would do things differently if another opportunity arises – this will put you in the right mindset to be able to follow-up from the interview and go out seeking a job again. Consider if there was any important information that you didn’t have and think about how this would allow you to answer a question differently in your next interview.

Forgive Your Mistakes

It is normal to feel guilty and disappointed in yourself after a hard interview. However, it is essential to recognize that you shouldn’t linger on the disappointment for too long. If you can forgive yourself for your mistakes, you can reach out to the employer to make the situation better. This will help you to be better prepared in the future. If you don’t forgive yourself, then you won’t learn from your mistakes and how to use them to springboard yourself in the future.

Explain Your Wrongdoings

Making excuses and acknowledging where you went wrong are two completely different things. If you know what mistakes you made, you can use this to write up a follow-up letter to the interviewer. This letter can include the list of mistakes you made – the interviewer may see this as admirable as they will see you as someone aware of what went wrong and striving for improvement. Although this is a good idea, it is crucial only to include mistakes that you are sure you made. Otherwise, you could make the interviewer aware of errors that they didn’t even recognize in the first place.

Make the Employer Aware of Any Outside Distractions

Sometimes an interview can fall at the wrong time in your life. It may fall on a day in which you struggled to sleep the night before, or it could occur during a period of life in which your life has many distractions. These distractions could result in you performing to a much lower standard in your interview than you usually would. However, if you have underperformed due to factors like this, you can call or write to the employer and explain your situation. This could result in them reconsidering how the interview went and possibly hiring you.

Do Not Apologise for Having A Bad Interview

The interview may not have gone as badly as you think, so apologizing could potentially make the agile interviewer feel wrong of you.  Therefore, it is a bad idea to keep reminding the interviewer of things you think went wrong, as you should want them to focus only on the positives of the situation. On the other hand, if you have made a clear and unmistakable error such as calling the interview by the wrong name, maybe apologize through an email or letter when you get home. Pass it off as something like your friend has that same name so that you don’t come across as ignorant.