How to learn from your past interviews

When job hunting, if at first, you don’t succeed, you haven’t failed. You’ve been given the chance to learn from your interview and then use this information to go on and land another dream role.

The first step in the learning process is to identify the primary reasons you weren’t chosen. The important ones will be business-related and will explain why you didn’t fit the bill for the company’s bottom line. This is why you should never take rejection personally: it really is just business.

The best way to figure out these reasons is to ask both yourself and your interviewer.

Let’s start with the interviewer because the best time to ask for feedback is as soon as possible.

Email or call them back to thank them for their time and interest in you and ask if they have a few moments to provide you with feedback. Let them know you’re looking for ways to improve yourself and your career opportunities and so their observations will be much appreciated.

Assess all of the information they provide and make a written note of the bits that will help you move forward. 

Now to your self-assessment. Immediately after your interview, try to recall and write down the questions you were asked and your replies. 

This will help you see which areas you struggled with and how would you answer differently next time. 

Did you come out of the interview kicking yourself for forgetting questions you’d planned to ask but forgotten about or simply froze on? Record these and go over them many times before your next interview.

Did you sell yourself short without even realising it? Honesty is important and a lack of knowledge should be transparent and put across as a willingness to learn and upskill to grow stronger both personally and for the business.

However, being too eager to identify all of your shortcomings before you’re even asked about your weaknesses could have set a negative tone that was impossible to row back from.

Now think back and remind yourself of the basic rules. Did you turn up on time, wear the appropriate clothing and come prepared by having researched the company and the role? If not, mark these as red alerts for the future.

Finally, don’t beat yourself up. There may have been many candidates with the same qualifications, know-how and experience all going for the same role. Only one of you was going to be offered the position. 

So make a list of the positive things you remember that went well during the interview and constantly remind yourself that the fact you got to this stage means you already have what it takes.

Now . . . let’s get back on that horse and chase those top roles with the help of jobs24.com.

Posted on April 17, 2020