Lemons to Lemonade #3 - Failed Interviews

Posted on March 15, 2007
Filed Under Lemons 2 Lemonade |

We all have had to endure interviews, and for the less fortunate ones (myself included) we have also gone through the process of rejections. In most cases a rejection is demoralizing, but an educational experience. I have failed in quite a few interviews, and almost always I know before hand how I fared. So instead of feeling bad about the results, I plan on my next interview equipped with lessons learned from my failure. If this happens to you, try these:

• List names of all interviewers, their positions and contact information. If you collected business cards, you already have that information. Add them to your contact database, for later use.

• Ask for feedback from the interviewers. Whatever medium you choose to approach them by, remember to thank them for their time. Assimilate the feedback received, and assess your strengths and weaknesses.

• Memorize the questions that were asked and your responses. Analyze how you could have answered these, if you were given a second chance. Craft a strategy on how you would handle it, the second time.

• Did you put yourself in any uncomfortable moments? Why were they uncomfortable? How could you have avoided it?

• Determine the fit. Did the job profile match your interests? Were you capable of delivering for the role? Would you have earned the respect of your peers and/or respected them?

• Don’t Start mentally kicking yourself, or contemplating if you should have worn your lucky shirt/dress. Focus on where you went wrong, and what you learnt.

The idea of this exercise is to objectively assess what went wrong and how one can learn from it. Hopefully with the learnings, we wont make the same mistake again. If we do, either it is an attitude issue or one of competency.

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