How to Recover From a Mistake During the Interview

After committing an interview mistake, many job candidates have the tendency to think the entire interview is a failure. Do not fall prey to catastrophic thinking and miss out on your job opportunity. Consider some simple ways you can bounce back from an interview blunder.

Use a Bit of Humor

If you can smile and make light of yourself after an interview mistake, a hiring manager is more likely to see you as a good-natured candidate. A sense of humor is a fresh breeze in highly social business environments, so using the opportunity to display a bit of your light-hearted side can help you impress the interviewer.

Correct Yourself

If you make an interview mistake but fail to correct yourself, you may lose out on a job opportunity for it. If you fumble on a interview question, apologize for the mistake you made, and then provide the correct response. Give yourself a moment of silence before you answer to provide an intelligent and thoughtful answer the next time around. If you arrive late to the interview, excuse yourself, but do not make lame excuses for your lack of punctuality. Hiring managers understand that nobody is perfect, and many will make some sort of mistake on the job as well, but they are more likely to forgive your interview mistake and believe in your capabilities if you correct it quickly.

Exude Confidence

Too many job candidates experience a sharp drop in confidence if they make an interview mistake during the interview, but this is one of the worst reactions to have. Instead of crumbling under the pressure, you must stay confident and resilient. If you find anxiety taking hold, simply take a deep breath, hold your head high, and smile. If an employer thinks that you are easily frazzled, you may be overlooked from positions that demand a balanced disposition under stress.

Pump Up Your Skills, Talents and Experience

Selling yourself during an interview is of prime importance in any case, but it is especially necessary if you mess up. If you want the interviewer to quickly forget your inadequacy after you commit a bad interview mistake, you must remember to pump up your skills, talents and relevant experience. Highlighting your best assets helps to bring the interviewer's focus off of your prior mistake and on to what you can offer the company instead.

Remain Positive

There are many job candidates that make an interview mistake and successfully land the job. Ward off the urge to worry about your interview mistake after it is addressed, or you could mar the rest of your interview. If you remember to keep a positive outlook, you are likely to perform well even after an interview mistake.

Most job seekers make an interview mistake at some point in their career, so don’t make the error of thinking that you can’t recover. If you remember to separate yourself from the interview mistake early and still perform at your best, you can bounce back from a blunder and still obtain the position.

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