I get a lot of my students and coaching clients that come to me when they have failed an interview, and in this post I’m gonna share with you some tools on how to most effectively handle it, and by the end of our calls they are excited and ready to get back out there.
 
 

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Point 1: What are you making it mean…?

Here’s what my clients will mostly tell me:
 

They are making it mean that they failed, that they are a failure, that the interviewers hated them, that they were not good enough.
 
 

 
 

Point 2 – It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with you

It’s not useful to beat yourself up over an interview that didn’t’ work out. You didn’t die, you’re ok, and you’re only better for it here’s why.
 

You went to the interview – that’s great.
 

Many people don’t’ even get interviews. You got one! That means you can get another and as many as you need to get until you get the job you want.
 

Quite possibly you not getting the job had nothing to do with you.
 

It could have been a thousand other reasons for why they didn’t choose you.
 

• Maybe it had nothing to do with you. Maybe the CEO’s son or Brother came along and decided that he wanted the job.

 

• Maybe they did internal restructuring and hired someone from within

 

• Maybe they were facing an internal critical incident

 

• Maybe they had budget cuts and decided to cancel or put their hiring on hold.

 

• Maybe they were dealing with a legal issue and they had to put their hiring on hold.

 

A lot of the times you’d be surprised I will be coaching someone, I will mention these things.

Point 3 – Failure is part of the game, accept it now

No one nails every interview every time, because not everyone likes everyone.
 

So when that’s the case you can’t possibly nail every single interview and you can’t be successful 100% of the time….
 
 

 
 

If you want to get your DREAM job and I mean your dream job that you are so excited about, you will have to accept that it will take more than maybe 1 or 2 interviews, maybe it will take you 10 interviews.
 

It doesn’t matter. What matters is your commitment level. Your ability to say, I am going to do whatever it takes until I get the result I want.
 

And if you let an interview that you didn’t get, get you down, then that will affect how you feel and it will affect how you show up to your next interview and then you will fail that one because you’re showing up thinking that you suck, or you’re not good enough. or whatever it is that you made it mean…
 

So consider if you already knew that sometimes you’re going to fail, but it’s only a fail because of what you make it mean.
 

IF you make it mean that it’s just a blip in the road to your dream job, that it was always going to happen…
 

Then you’ll move on with no problem right?
 
 

 
 

Point 4 – How are you defining failure?

So to be honest I would not consider an interview where you didn’t get the job a failure.
 

It’s not even a failure, a real failure would be not even trying. Not applying, not putting your resume forward, not going to the interview. That would be the real failure.. So to be honest how you define failure needs to change.
 

So give yourself some credit for putting yourself on the line, putting yourself in a position where you could fail! Because I bet it was scary!
 

But that’s the work you need to do to really get what you want.
 
 

 
 

Point 5 – Harvest your lessons learned, Use them and move on.

What I teach my clients to do is an interview debrief. An interview debrief is where you write down what worked well and what didn’t work in such a way that you can really utilize this result to improve for the next time.
 

This exercise is a process that will help you improve yourself, and even if you did great, and there was nothing better that you could have done differently because it didn’t have to do with you, then quite often this comes out in the debrief too, and then you can start to realize that it wasn’t about you.
 
 

 
 

In Conclusion

And there we have it and another reason that you may have not gotten the job was because you were simply not the right fit, and maybe you would have hated it anyway!
 

This happened to me once. I took a job and I interviewed great but I hated it.
 

With that in mind I did my interview debrief and in it I learned that I really needed to be asking more questions – more specific questions to determine whether I would even like the job and the people I was going to be working with.
 

So I’d like to offer you that today, you can grab my 35 questions to discover whether you’re the right fit or not.
 

Click below to get instant access to the 35 Questions Cheat Sheet: 35 QUESTIONS That’ll Help You Get The Job (Other candidates won’t think to ask)
 

+ Easily figure out if you’re the right fit for the position by asking a few key questions.
 
 

Do you know one person who could benefit from the information in this post? If so, do your friend a favour and share this info with him/her.

And remember, the current system isn’t perfect, but you can outsmart it. I’m here to prove to you that you do have what it takes.

I’ll see you next time and I can’t wait!

In Work & Life

I’ve got your back

XO Natalie