How to Recover from a Car Crash Job Interview

How to Recover from a Car Crash Job Interview Had a bit of a car crash job interview? At this point you probably wish  the world would swallow you up whole, but dont fret, its happened to the best of us. After all, were only human and unfortunately things dont always go exactly to plan. You may feel like youve blown your chances of landing the job, but this doesnt necessarily have to be the case. It is possible to rectify faults after an interview, but its important for you to weigh up whether the error is notable enough to be acknowledged or if its best to just move on. In the heat of the moment its tempting to do some urgent damage reversal, but dont 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) Dont overthink things. Reliving every little detail of the interview over and over again in your mind isnt going to change anything, so save yourself the torment! Youll only make yourself panic more and chances are that some of the things youre worrying about werent 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 isnt worth confronting any mistakes you made and it may even help you to look at the negatives in a more positive light. Its easy to be self-critical under stress, but the areas you excelled in will probably outweigh your downfalls, so dont 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. Its always recommended to send a thank you email after attending a job interview, so why not kill two birds with one stone? If theres 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, its 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 wasnt 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 theres an idea! 5) Keep calm and carry on. A lot of the time we dont recognise our mistakes until we reflect back at an interview once its over, however if you  notice that youve slipped up while youre still in there, its essential that you dont get yourself in a flap!  Remain poised and focus on answering the next question to the best of your ability. If theres 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 youve let yourself down earlier on, so dont give up trying. The same goes for your job search in general. Just because this particular interview didnt go as smoothly as hoped, it doesnt mean youre not going to nail the next one! Put it behind you and move on.  The more interviews you go for, the more confident youll become.