Did you just walk out of an interview, feeling like you’ve completely blown your chances at landing that dream role? You’re not alone – this has happened to everyone at some point in their career.
There are often circumstances beyond your control that result in a bad interview experience such as unrelated questions, or if you were feeling under the weather that morning.
Regardless, there’s little you can do to salvage it. But these tips can help you recover and better prepare for the next one:
Be kind to yourself
Never use the quality of the interview as a benchmark of your professional standing as a candidate. A bad interview cannot take your professional attributes and talent away from you.
Many times a hostile interviewer can throw you off, and although messing it up the interview sucked, don’t beat yourself up for it. Thank your interviewer anyway, and set your sights higher from here.
Learn from the experience
Once you have recovered from the disastrous interview, try to think of what went wrong and write it down, if you must. Then go through it and think about how you would like to handle the next interview.
Follow up with enthusiasm
Despite feeling defeated from that tough interview, follow up with a thank you note. If you really believe you have blown your interview, ask your interviewer for honest feedback.
While not everyone is going to get a second shot at the job interview, this helps to make the right impression.
