Blowing an Interview

[Canuck223]

A perfect storm hit Dave this week. I aced an exam last Wednesday, beating out 26 other applicants to secure one of four interview spots for a promotion. It's the same job I have now, but at a bigger plant. It pays more, and is far more supervision than physical work. It's also the stepping stone to management.

Last Saturday I came down with a nasty head cold. I figured no worries, I'll be over it before the interview. Well almost....

The two nights prior to the interview, my daughter was up sick. Unfortunately, it was also while my wife was working midnights.

In a perfect world, I could have just taken the morning off to chill out, study and review past interview questions, and compose myself.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. I just had to be into work for the morning, as leaving them shorthanded would have just been wrong.

I've done three interviews with the one manager, and get along quite well with the second. The third involved in the interview I'd never met before.

I was tired, nervous, and failed to stop long enough to compose my answer before opening my cake hole to speak. I forgot the cardinal rule on several occations. Just because you know that they know, tell them anyway.

I was up against three other good candidates, so not getting the job is no shame. However, I do hate that my performance was so bloody poor on this day.

[sdwilliams]

What did you do right, what could you have done better and what are you never going to do again? Answer those three questions and move on. Besides, you don't know how the other three did. They may have had an equally rough start, or worse. You never know but trust this, things really do work out for a reason.

[Canuck223]

At the end of the day, I stopped in to visit my boss, who was one of the managers doing the interview, for a post mortum.

[Flexmoney]

Ask for a re-do.

Nothing to lose, right?

[Canuck223]

Each competition is freestanding, so while I can get feedback on how I did and where I fell short, I will have to wait for someone to die or retire to try again.