How to Recover when an Interview doesn't go to Plan

When you’ve prepared for an interview and it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to get into a cycle of self-blame about all the things that went wrong, second guessing yourself for the answers you gave and for the things you forgot to say.

Because you’ll probably be interviewing again soon, it’s important to learn whatever needs to be learnt so you can move ahead with your job search in a confident mood.

What did you Learn?

Play back the interview. Not to self-critique but to decide what you would do differently in the same set of circumstances.

Whatever it was that didn’t work; a specific question that you didn’t handle well, tech problems, lack of rapport or forgetting something important that you wanted to mention, gather them up and then figure out what you plan to do next time.

Recall the questions and your answers. Note them down and write out revised answers, so you’ll find it easier to deal with that type of question again.

Take a look again at the job spec and any areas you felt you didn’t address well in your answers. Think about how you can better demonstrate how your experience fits their requirements and make a note of it.

If there was a question you couldn’t deal with adequately or you lacked specific knowledge to address, find someone in your network who might have that experience or knowledge and fill in the gap in your knowledge.

Get Feedback

Some interview panels will provide feedback as a matter of course and you should consider this in detail to see where you may need to either gain more experience or knowledge or flex your approach to answering questions.

Again, it can be useful to talk to someone in your network who can share their experience either in a similar role or who has recently come through an interview process.

Where feedback isn’t provided, think how you might be able to access it. You might be able to check in with the HR people or the recruiter to see if there is feedback available.

Prepare for the Next One

You may need to critically reflect on how your preparation met the demands of the interview.

There may have been a blind spot in how you prepared, which left you underprepared for some aspect of the process. There’s lots of information available on how to prepare for different types of interview so get familiar with that material.

Make sure you are fully informed about the role specification, any guidelines on the organisation’s interview process and information about them generally so you can better understand their questions and their point of view on issues.

If you were put off by a question in your last interview, you should prepare some holding responses that will help you deal with a difficult question next time.

Finally, don’t let it dent your confidence.

Everyone has off days and once you’ve reviewed what you did and taken the learning for the next one, park it.

Also reflect on whether it was them and not you!

Sometimes no matter how well qualified you are on paper, you’re just not a fit for them and vice versa and if that's the case, the interview has saved both sides from a poor match.