Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

(Part 1 of 2)
Not getting the job that you just interviewed for is tough, no doubt. There are two ways in which you can react to this disappointing event. You can micro-analyze every answer that you offered during the interview and every gesture that you made. You can also choose to chalk it up to experience and move on.

In Part 1 of this post, I share an experience where I did not get the job that I interviewed for. In Part 2, I discuss my thoughts on potential reasons as to why I didn’t get the job and how I handled the situation.

What do you do when you don’t get the job that you just interviewed for? You prepared and prepared but no job offer, nonetheless. If you were lucky, you received an email or some other notification letting you know the bad news.

There is definitely no solace in the hollow words, “although you were highly qualified, we have chosen to go with another candidate.”

You start reliving the interview to see if you said something wrong. You wonder if you offended them in some way.
My advice would be that you not torture yourself. I don’t know anyone that has not gone through this experience. Let me share one of mine:

I was one of two finalists for a directorship at a school district. I had interviewed with a committee of about ten people and felt I had done well. In fact, I would say that it was one of my best interviews of my career.

Sure enough, I get the call that I am one of two finalists and that I had a final interview with the superintendent. The day came for my interview. I was ready. I was confident. I walked into the superintendent’s office and sat down. The superintendent literally asked me two questions. I answered each question well. The interview was over. I was probably in her office for less than five minutes. The superintendent told me that she would be making a decision over the weekend.

When Monday came, I was called into the superintendent’s office. The superintendent told me that she was going to offer the position to the other finalist. She told me that there was nothing that I had done wrong, nor was it a lack of experience or knowledge. She told me to, “Hang in there, your turn will come.”

Honestly, I didn’t spend much time wondering what had gone wrong. To begin with, I did not feel slighted in any way throughout the interview process. I actually felt really good that I had been one of the two finalists. I knew that there were going to be other opportunities in the future.

I could have spent hours trying to figure out what went wrong. Was there a specific reason as to why I wasn’t offered the job. After all, I was qualified and experienced.

All I know is that I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time and energy trying to figure out an outcome that I could not change.

Yes, I was disappointed. Bummed really. After all, I knew that I would have done a great job. I did not however, spend too much time feeling this way.