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It’s always a terrible feeling to leave a job interview believing you failed to impress the hiring manager. Whether you weren’t prepared as well as you thought you were, or a case of extreme nerves caused you to forget your well-rehearsed responses, it’s incredibly discouraging to look back at the situation with regret.

The good news is, unless you insulted the hiring manager or did something truly awful, you still might be able to salvage your botched interview. Until a hiring decision has been made, any candidate can pull through in the last minute, so it’s time to do damage control.

3 Strategies to Recover From a Bad Job Interview

Send a Thank-You Note With Follow-Up Information

Every ambitious job seeker knows the importance of promptly sending a thank-you note after the interview, so make yours serve a dual-purpose. After thanking the interviewer for taking the time to meet with you, smoothly shift the topic to a question you know you blundered. Instead of admitting defeat — and drawing further attention to your slip-up — simply present the information you left out earlier as a way to reiterate your fit for the job.

Enlist the Help of Your References

The interview might not have gone as badly as you think it did, so there’s a good chance your references will still be called. Before the hiring manager can beat you to it, reach out to the people who have agreed to speak on your behalf and tell them about your concerns from the interview, so they know in which areas to place an extra emphasis. Ultimately, your mistakes may be written off as nerves if they’re overshadowed by glowing reviews from your references.

Learn From Your Mistakes

You’re going have a lot of job interviews throughout your career, and they won’t all be a success. Instead of beating yourself up for not putting on a stellar performance, evaluate what went wrong, learn from it, and move on. No one is perfect and if you put an extreme amount of pressure on yourself to live up to incredibly high standards, you’ll never have the ability to just relax and be yourself in an interview.

Need a little help with your job search? Wood Staffing offers temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire clerical, industrial, and professional employment opportunities with top companies throughout Southwestern Michigan and Northern Indiana. Contact us today to learn more about our job opportunities in St. Joseph and beyond!

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