Have you ever bombed an interview? If you have, you’re not alone!
First of all, please be aware that you probably didn’t do nearly as badly as you feel like you did. We all know how much we play back our own foolish errors in our heads, but we all also know that we usually spend way less time thinking about a mistake that someone else has made, and in this situation, you’re the someone else. So take a deep breath and reassure yourself that it wasn’t as bad as you think.
Then it’s time to address the problem!
Start by writing down what you remember about the interview, taking note of the areas you didn’t perform as well as you wish. Don’t panic yourself with this exercise, but make some notes about how you did because addressing the not-so-great interview is going to become the heart of your thank-you note.
Next, start writing the note. You do still want to thank the interview team for their time, so be sure to capture that. Then acknowledge that you didn’t really do yourself justice in the interview. Be honest, but don’t throw yourself under the bus, as it were. Instead, mention that you failed to provide an answer or a demonstration of a few specific things, and then explain those, briefly but thoroughly. You still want this note to be short, but you can take a paragraph to demonstrate why you’re a good fit for the role. Make sure you’re providing specific examples of your work as you do this, so that they can picture you in the role.
If you feel you’ve done really badly, you can also request another meeting with the team. Be aware that many organizations won’t grant the request, but some might, and that will give you a chance to redeem yourself. You aren’t asking for a full interview here, but more like 15 minutes for you to sell your skills and qualifications to them anew. Be very respectful of their time, of course, and if they do say yes, prepare some short contents to really demonstrate your ability to do the work for them.
And if you’ve really, really done badly—so badly that you can’t bear the thought of facing anyone on the team ever again—you can opt out of the job altogether. If that happens, you’ll want to take a deep look at your interview performance and figure out what went wrong and how to address those issues for the next time.
