Bouncing Back from Interview Mistakes
Posted June 17, 2013 & filed under Interviewing, Job Search
You can prepare all you want for an interview, but sometimes mistakes just happen. When the time comes, and you slip up, no amount of research, job experience, or flashy skills will help you bounce back from an awkward blunder. But you can’t allow any mistake, no matter the size, to derail your entire interview, and with some quick thinking you can easily get back on track. Here are a few common interview mistakes and how you can recover from them.
You are late
You were up on time, dressed, and out the door exactly when you wanted to be. You practiced the route, left plenty of time to get their early, but good old Murphy’s Law was in effect. A crash on the highway halts traffic, and now it is certain that you will be late. What do you do?
Call ahead. You can’t help the fact that you will be late, but you can minimize the damage by proactively warning the hiring manager that unforeseeable events are causing you to be tardy. When you arrive, sincerely apologize, explain why you were late, and then let the interview commence. You don’t want to harp on the situation for long, just offer an honest explanation and let the hiring manager know that you value his or her time. Just remember that things happen, and as long as you are honest and sincere with your apology, you will be fine. Just avoid apologizing multiple times. Once with sincerity is enough. Constantly apologizing can be annoying and make you sound desperate.
Your appearance is off
So you arrived on time, you are prepared, but just as you are getting out of your car you tear an article of clothing on your door. Maybe you spilled your coffee all over your white shirt during the ride, or perhaps you got a black eye from that innocent game of football you played a few days before.
It can be nerve wrecking to have to walk in and explain why you look like you were just mauled by a tiger, but once again these things happen. It may be off putting at first, but a simple apology for your appearance followed by a quick explanation is the best way to handle this situation.
You give a terrible first impression
You’re on time, you look good, but as you get into the office you mess up the handshake, either grabbing too firmly or giving the proverbial dead fish. Or perhaps your interviewer has a last name that is comprised mostly of consonants, causing you to mispronounce it. The first impression may be important, but you can always recover from it.
The best possible response to any first impression blunder is to reassure yourself that the rest of the interview will go well. Calm yourself, make a joke, and ask for another handshake. As long as you acknowledge the mistake the hiring manager will at least recognize that you took note of and made the attempt to correct it. As far as the name goes, apologize and repeat it correctly. Avoid making a joke on this one so as not to offend your interviewer by telling them their name is a mouthful.
You don’t know how to answer a question
The interview may be going well at first, but then the interviewer asks you a complicated question to which you have no idea how to answer. You start to panic and try to speak but no words come out. What do you do?
Most people fear awkward silences during an interview, but they are not really as detrimental as they seem. Hiring managers appreciate when a candidate takes a moment to think. If you need a few seconds to mull over the perfect answer just thank them for asking such a great question, then request a minute to think about your answer. No hiring manager is going to demand an immediate response to something as complicated as, “How do you feel that the experience you have garnered throughout your career will help us improve our bottom line?” So take a moment, breathe, and think of the best possible answer to the question.
You say the wrong thing
Perhaps you didn’t think long enough on that last question, and out of your mouth comes something foolish, or something that didn’t convey what you really meant. Things don’t always come out the way you meant them to.
I once interviewed for a position with a city councilman after a long and brutal campaign season. Working on a campaign can easily be a 15 hour-a-day 7 day-a-week job, and when I was asked if I was looking forward to taking a break from working such vigorous hours I foolishly responded that it was going to be nice to work at slower pace for a bit. The interviewer’s reply was, “well, being a city councilman is a 24 hour a day job, and we need someone who is willing to put in the work to help Mr. so-and-so out.”
We all say things that sound terrible now and again, and of course I didn’t mean that I wasn’t willing to put in the necessary effort that the job required. The trick to recovering from this is staying calm. Take a deep breath and get your nerves in check, admit that you misspoke, and correct yourself immediately. Don’t think that they may not have picked up on a bad answer because they have. Just make it a point before moving on to the next topic to right the wrong, then continue the interview with confidence, do not let it throw you off.
Just remember that a solid last impression can always trump a bad first impression. So make the most of bad interview mistakes by leaving a positive lasting impression on the hiring manger.
By Kevin Withers
