Bad Interview? How To Turn Around the Meeting Into A Positive

Even if you had an awkward, seemingly unconstructive interview with a person / company, that does not mean that you cannot turn the situation around in your favor. This can be swiftly accomplished via incorporating some simplistic after interview tricks that others are not doing nor do they even think to do. By being able to grasp and successfully utilize the three below tactics, you should never leave an interview feeling that you are beaten again.

Instead, you should leave a mediocre interview, equipped with that thought process that you are simply in a race, even though you are possibly a mile behind. Below are some ways to make up that extra mile as well as some tricks you could use to put you right back in the running as a strong candidate for the job.

Now, will this tactic reverse a completely awful interview? No. However, this method will work if, after the meeting, you believe the interviewer to be "on the fence" regarding your application.

Follow-up With a Very Prompt Email Response
Upon returning home from an interview, following a quick wind down and a few minutes to get situated, you should head straight for the computer and begin writing your follow-up or, as I prefer to call it, thank you note. As an employer myself, I get excited when I see that a candidate whom I have just interviewed, took the time and had the ambition to write this note within a very short period of time.

To me, this translates that the person has ambition, interest in the job and is thoughtful. Even if the interview did not go the best, I would reconsider the particular applicant's status if a quick, professional note landed in my inbox in a very short period of time.

Be Open About a Lackluster Performance
If you feel as if you did not do as well as you could have in an interview, put that in the follow-up note. Prior to writing the note, think to yourself as to what aspects of the meeting did not go as planned and bring these to the forefront of the after interview correspondence. Make sure that your explanations are written in a concise, convincing manner; being long-winded will not work. Something of the sorts would be your best bet:

"Understanding that my explanation of x was not 100% on target, given the opportunity I ought to be able to shed some further clarification on the topic."

Understand That the Interviewer Took His or Her Time to Meet with You
In some ways, we've become a very selfish society. People don't take a moment to think about what others have done for them. When it comes to interviewing, a lot of applicants don't appreciate the fact that the person who was sitting across from them took time out of their day as well. Having a firm grasp of this concept, your follow-up note should have a clause that will standout from the rest by illuminating that you comprehend this basic, but seemingly unknown notion.

"Upon meeting you, it seemed as if you had a lot on your plate and please understand the fact that, to a great extent I appreciated you taking the time out of your day to sit down with me."