What to Do after Failing an Interview

What to Do after Failing an Interview ShareShare1TweetWhat can you do after failing at a job interview? Does it even matter? It sure does. Career coaches and hiring managers know this: even if a candidate bungled the interview, they may still be called back for another round. It depends how they handle the situation. Heres what you can do to make the best of a bad interview: Finesse your follow-up message. If you know you made a mistake, consider correcting or counterbalancing it in a follow-up email. Lets say you didnt give a strong answer to a behavioral interview question like What is the most challenging project you led? If you think of a better story later, you could include a super-brief (one to three sentences) version of it in your thank-you note. Similarly, you could correct a fact you misstated. Just be sure you weigh the value of the correction against the possibility of highlighting something they may not have noticed or remembered. If you can, have someone put in a good word for you.If one of the people on your references list is known to the hiring manager or someone close to her, ask that person to reach out directly. If you dont have such a connection, see if you can quickly get a LinkedIn recommendationthat subtly counteracts the negative impression you made at the interview. Then drop a note to the hiring managersomething like this: Thanks again for our interview for the blahblah position. Ive just been honored with this nice LinkedIn recommendation and thought it might interest you. Dont give up.As long as they have not yet said no or hired someone else, continue to follow upas a matter of course. This does not, however, mean you should endlessly dwell on this one job opening. Look to the future.Point your emotional energy toward other opportunities. Never put your job hunt on hold just because you have one hot prospect, nor because that one prospect didnt pan out. Moving forward is one of the best ways to keep from obsessing about whats past. Learn from it. If you know what you did wrong, work on it. If you dont know what the problem is, set up mock interviews and/or interview coaching to get feedback on how youre coming across. Maybe theres one thing youre getting wrong, or maybe you just need to polish up your skills overall. Reading a good interview prep book is a great start, either way. Above all, be kind to yourself. Dont PPP on yourself by misinterpreting the rejection as a permanent, pervasive and personal catastrophe. Remember, its not what happens to you, its how you react to it that matters. What to Do after Failing an Interview ShareShare1TweetWhat can you do after failing at a job interview? Does it even matter? It sure does. Career coaches and hiring managers know this: even if a candidate bungled the interview, they may still be called back for another round. It depends how they handle the situation. Heres what you can do to make the best of a bad interview: Finesse your follow-up message. If you know you made a mistake, consider correcting or counterbalancing it in a follow-up email. Lets say you didnt give a strong answer to a behavioral interview question like What is the most challenging project you led? If you think of a better story later, you could include a super-brief (one to three sentences) version of it in your thank-you note. Similarly, you could correct a fact you misstated. Just be sure you weigh the value of the correction against the possibility of highlighting something they may not have noticed or remembered. If you can, have someone put in a good word for you.If one of the people on your references list is known to the hiring manager or someone close to her, ask that person to reach out directly. If you dont have such a connection, see if you can quickly get a LinkedIn recommendationthat subtly counteracts the negative impression you made at the interview. Then drop a note to the hiring managersomething like this: Thanks again for our interview for the blahblah position. Ive just been honored with this nice LinkedIn recommendation and thought it might interest you. Dont give up.As long as they have not yet said no or hired someone else, continue to follow upas a matter of course. This does not, however, mean you should endlessly dwell on this one job opening. Look to the future.Point your emotional energy toward other opportunities. Never put your job hunt on hold just because you have one hot prospect, nor because that one prospect didnt pan out. Moving forward is one of the best ways to keep from obsessing about whats past. Learn from it. If you know what you did wrong, work on it. If you dont know what the problem is, set up mock interviews and/or interview coaching to get feedback on how youre coming across. Maybe theres one thing youre getting wrong, or maybe you just need to polish up your skills overall. Reading a good interview prep book is a great start, either way. Above all, be kind to yourself. Dont PPP on yourself by misinterpreting the rejection as a permanent, pervasive and personal catastrophe. Remember, its not what happens to you, its how you react to it that matters.