Blog Post 6

Dear Blog,

Today I read an insightful article that offered some good advice on how to recover from making mistakes in a job interview. I am what I would call a social klutz. With internship interviews and career fairs looming near in my future, I have been stressing because I have no doubts that I will have at least a few verbal slip-ups or weird fidgety habits that I forget to hide. I found a few articles that have given me advice on how to avoid making mistakes, such as this one from job hunt: https://www.job-hunt.org/avoid-interview-mistakes/. Beth Herring talks about several ways to recover from and make up for the mistake.

The first advice she gives is to apologize. I believe this is the most important way to recover, because it shows self awareness and a willingness to recognize one’s mistakes. People tend to be very forgiving when offered a sincere apology. Her second piece of advice is not to dwell on it. This can apply to a mistake in any area of life, because dwelling on a mistake can lead to making many more. Her third piece of advice is to think on your feet and come up with an excuse for your mistake that makes you look better. For example, if you forget a list of references or resume, you could tell them you wanted to wait to first know more about what qualifications and experience they are looking for. Her last piece of advice is to fix the mistake when you realize you are doing it. She explains that fixing the mistake immediately is better than feeling bad about it once the interview is over.

If the mistake is big enough to warrant one, the article also advises us to include an apology in a thank-you email or even a handwritten note. I found a good template for one of these messages:

I believe I would use a handwritten note. This article talks about the merits of both a handwritten note and an email: https://www.terrastaffinggroup.com/resources/blog/post-interview-thank-you-email-or-handwritten-thank-you-note/#:~:text=Sending%20both%20an%20email%20and%20a%20handwritten%20note,back%20to%20the%20forefront%20a%20few%20days%20later. They also give some examples where both would be acceptable. I think they make you more memorable and show you put effort and care into it as opposed to copy pasting the same email to all of your interviewers. This last article gives some advice on what you should and should not do in a handwritten thank you letter to your interviewer: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/handwritten-thank-you-notes-after-interview.