Which brings me to my recent interview. I interviewed this week with someone I know, which for the record, is a thousand times worse than interviewing with a stranger. For whatever reason, my jitters were just completely out of control; he makes me nervous. And y'all. Y'ALL. I am Bridget Jones in all of her awkwardness. My conversation to myself pre-interview is something along the lines of, "You've got this. You've studied. Do the best you can, and whatever happens will happen." But then in reality, I stumbled over my words, I talked way too fast (this is how you know I'm nervous), and my mind completely blanked on questions to ask at the end of the interview. Come on Kris, rookie mistake. So naturally I spent the rest of the day over-analyzing every minuscule detail of what was said, how I said it, and how he reacted when I said it. And I woke up this morning feeling utterly disappointed that I may have presented as unprepared.
It is what it is, and my view is that as long as I learned something, mess-ups are okay. My people-pleasing personality doesn't like to feel like I let anyone down, or didn't meet expectations, but when you know better you do better, right? So I took notes on how to improve next time (which includes a list of post-interview questions). And I will work on applying those, even in the midst of overwhelming nerves.
In the spirit of a not-so-stellar interview, I thought we could talk about interviews that went WAY worse then this one. Ahhhh, the memories of way long ago.
So, normally I don't look incredibly terrible at work. But on a day when I showed up in a sweatshirt, very very early in my career, with my naturally curly hair (which you recently saw a picture of) piled messily on top of my head, and zero makeup, a woman I was interviewing with later that week came over to meet me. I wasn't the top candidate going in, and I knew it, so I felt like my chances were over when I saw her wearing a suit. I cried in the bathroom, and then a week later got offered the job. It was my first "real" promotion, and she absolutely adored me. I learned to not wear ratty sweatshirts to work after that. But for the record, at least three days out of five I'm still not wearing mascara.
I bombed an interview terribly years ago. It was really, really bad. I think I felt confident of maybe one question that I answered. It was so terrible that when I hung up the phone I started laughing. And I was so thankful the hiring manager was in New York and I would never meet her. I got the job, and it put me into the group that I love and still work in today. That taught me to start a folder of interview questions to study. It also taught me the importance of a stellar professional reputation; a good recommendation earned me the spot.
I interviewed a couple of years ago and was asked to create a power point slide so they could get to know me, and informed that it should also show them why they should hire me. I had never done anything like that before, and so I didn't know if I should go with my personality, which is super creative and loves lots of color and patterns, or if I should keep it professional and clean with minimal colors. I went with creative, and made a fun, interactive sheet that I absolutely loved, but was nervous to submit. I didn't get that job, but the hiring manager loved my preso so much that he asked if he could keep it and use it as an example of what a good presentation should look like. He told me it was by far his favorite. That taught me that being authentically me and letting my personality show a little isn't a bad thing. Professional doesn't always have to equal boring. I also learned to embrace my creativity and use it when it's appropriate to do so.
In one of my very first interviews out of high school, not with my present company, I was asked what my weakness was and I proudly and confidently answered that I had no weaknesses. I know, I know. I did not get that job, obviously. But I learned that it is okay and expected to have areas of opportunity. I've been prepared to answer that question in every single interview I've had since.
Messing up isn't the worst thing in the world. I've done it before, with people I know and people I don't, and I will no doubt do it again. But I'm okay with that. I'm not perfect, but I am always learning. And what will be, will just be.
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