What does a bad interview sound like?

How can anybody know if they never gave one or even if they did, did the interviewer directly tell them so?? Of course you can get a certain idea but do you actually know how bad it went? How do you measure it on a scale of 1 to 10?

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One of my readers, lets call her Samantha, once asked me for advice on how can she judge if she performed well during an interview. After going through her experience I formulated a set of questions that can tell if it went well or not. But first of all let's have a look at what she wrote:

Dear Sandeep,

I recently went through an interview and I think it went real bad. I scheduled up the time on my email conversations. The phone rang at the right time. I replied in my usual tone “Hello?” to which I got a reply “Hi Samantha this is Fred. My reply was “Thanks for calling.” This is exactly where something weird happened.

He changed his tone after listening to these first few words.

His response was, “Were you aware that I was going to call or you just forgot??” I got really confused as to why he got that impression.

To which I thought that maybe he just asked this question to know whether I was desperate for the job or not and which I revealed by sounding like so. Anyways, he replied, “You sound confused.” And this is where things went down the road.

I got off my game loosing my confidence. In the latter part of the interview I felt disadvantageous as if I have committed some sort of crime by making him feel that I forgot about the interview. And he did not give away a chance of mentioning it again in the end.

I never got the job as I was not able to represent myself in a good light, even though I possessed the right skill. 

Please reply as to what I can do to know if an interview is turning bad and where I was wrong and how could I have corrected my course?

Thanks,

Samantha

Samantha’s experience was nothing off the track. Many people would have reacted similarly in this situation. And that's what I told her─sometimes we take the blame of a bad interviewer on our shoulders and her case was just the same.

Samantha’s Question ─ How to tell if an interview is turning bad?

I told samantha that her interviewer judged her soon by relying on little evidence and neglecting her superior self completely. He should have given her some more time to let her explain herself.

For the latter part of the question as how to tell if an interview is turning bad I thought of supporting my case by providing her set of 5 questions to judge an interview. 

Fact 1─Did the interviewer try to sell you the company??  

If he likes you he will tell you something about the company culture, values and vision. He will try to make you excited about you joining the company. You can also read this post: Adopting these mindsets will help you do wonderful things in life.

Fact 2─The Interview Finished Quickly

If you acted like a translation machine converting the information written on your CV to speech for your interviewer. And weren't asked any type of relevant questions, then even if you think that it went easy and have no direct point of reference to make regret dwell upon you, you are wrong.

Fact 3─Interviewer never mentioned the word “Salary”

If you like a certain T-shirt at a showroom the next instinctive response would be to check the price tag. If salary did not come at all anywhere during the interview then it’s not because they forgot to take it, it's because they didn’t liked the T-Shirt.

Fact 4─Did the interviewer offer you some advice

Never take someone’s nice gesture as an inference of some sort of instant connection. It may as well be a kiss of death. He is just nice enough to point out your mistakes by providing you something that you may have been missing.

Fact 5─The interview ends abruptly without telling you the next steps to follow 

Did the interviewer tell you when to start? Even if they tell you to follow up with any other employee at work or to provide previous work samples then that’s a good sign.

I give each fact 2 points to rate your interview on a scale of 1 to 10. But remember that the score will only tell you how well your interview went and not if that happened because of you or the interviewer. 

If something like this happens with you try to stay positive, change your tactics, ask questions and try to make the most out of the thank you note by using it as a tool to highlight your skills and achievements. You can also read this one article: You can be interesting even when everything has already been said.

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About Author:

Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub - a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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