Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent)

BookButterfly · December 2011

Hi ladies,
I feel awful. =/ I had my first-ever phone interview for my first-ever "real" job and I totally screwed it up. I spent a good portion of yesterday drowning in self-pity (hoping that feeling my feelings would make them better, eventually--normally, this works for me), but today I still feel embarrassed, self-conscious, and disappointed in myself.

Background: I'm a substitute teacher at a school district that I adore. Although I'm graduating next week, they hired me because they had a shortage of subs and liked my work during my field placement. Long story short, they have several positions opening up for the 2012 school year... Many of the teachers encouraged me to apply ASAP. So I did.

Long story longer, I was so nervous that I was shaking worse than I did in the 7th grade when I sang the Star Spangled Banner in front of hundreds of people, I couldn't breathe, and my answers were jumbled, incohesive, and disappointing. I'd prepped all week, studied the school district, looked up as many interview questions as I could find, practiced with BF, and I still felt under-prepared.

The interview highlighted a fact that I'd never considered before--that even though I've been substitute teaching since February, my experience doesn't really mean much. How can I explain one of my successes when I'm working off other people's lesson plans? What "real" difficulties have I ever encountered? Sub difficulties are totally different than legitimate teacher difficulties.

Anyway, I'm starting to feel like all of my extra effort and stress (teaching while taking significantly more than a full load of classes in college) really didn't mean anything.. It feels like it amounts to very little.

My interviewer (who I know fairly well) said that she wanted to follow up with me after a few months of student teaching with them in February to set up the in-person interview. I guess it was dumb to apply before I'd even student taught, but everyone I spoke to encouraged it.. Sigh. Yay arrogance.

Have any of you ever blown an interview? What did you do to get past it? What did you do differently next time?

Thanks for reading. I'm sorry this was so long.

Ollie08 · December 2011

I agree with Elle, we've all been there at least once in our lives. Don't let it get you down. The up side to this is that you knew your interviewer, so they could probably tell you were incredibly nervous.

Elle1036 · December 2011

I think we've pretty much all had interviews like that. I've said some really stupid things under pressure before. You're young; you'll probably have a few more over the course of your life.

Try to be positive and see it as a learning experience. Every interview you bomb makes you more likely to nail the next one.

ravenray · December 2011

Elle has much wisdom! *nods* Everyone makes mistakes. While it would have been awesome if you got the job there will be other jobs out there and you have to get your experience from somewhere. So hang in there, don't be too hard on yourself. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason so maybe there is something better planned for you

csousa1 · December 2011

Oh Butterfly, I'm sorry

That is never fun. I have been extremely shy most of my life, so I am very familliar with the level of nervousness that feels like it will literally make you ill. It is NO fun.

I don't have any interesting/embarassing interview stories, but I am still embarassed about something that happened yesterday. I had to go to a client lunch with my boss - he and I get along very well, we make a great team, but I was nervous about the hour long car ride back and forth from the restaurant. I have overcome my shyness quite a bit, but that girl is still in there and the idea of making two hours of conversation with a work relation was daunting. Long story short, at one point I somehow ended up talking to my boss about my ex-roommate's boobs. How in God's name does that even happen??

Best of luck in everything to come, and don't be too hard on yourself. Your work is NOT worth very little, it is invaluable. No one can belittle or take away the experiences you have had in your work and education thus far, and they will serve you well in your journey to become a teacher. Hugs!!

alyaki · December 2011

It'll all turn out ok, as everyone else has said, we all make mistakes. I had a similar situation happen a month or two ago - I was a shoe-in for the job, but for the in-person interview they wanted a 10-15 minute presentation on a "QA topic" of my choice. That turned out badly, since most people don't consider performance testing traditional "QA", I had to find some old code and stuff from when I did functional automation and try to do a presentation off of something I hadn't seen in 2 years.

I knew I bombed it almost as soon as I started, even though I had skimmed through everything the day before (thought some code looked off, was asked to correct it on the spot, which I'm absolutely horrible at - I have to take time to look at it a few times and then compare to other things I've done before I even decide if the code is really wrong).

I'm sure everything will work out and you'll rock your student teaching

Elle1036 · December 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_screwed-up-interview-longvent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:cbb7a416-1425-4627-aa56-1b63efef728aPost:1d0502d1-8509-48fa-86bd-d4cf86f6ece2">Re: Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent)</a>:
[QUOTE]Oh Butterfly, I'm sorry :( That is never fun.<strong> I have been extremely shy most of my life, so I am very familliar with the level of nervousness that feels like it will literally make you ill. It is NO fun. I don't have any interesting/embarassing interview stories, but I am still embarassed about something that happened yesterday. I had to go to a client lunch with my boss - he and I get along very well, we make a great team, but I was nervous about the hour long car ride back and forth from the restaurant. I have overcome my shyness quite a bit, but that girl is still in there and the idea of making two hours of conversation with a work relation was daunting</strong>. Long story short, at one point I somehow ended up talking to my boss about my ex-roommate's boobs. How in God's name does that even happen?? Best of luck in everything to come, and don't be too hard on yourself. Your work is NOT worth very little, it is invaluable. No one can belittle or take away the experiences you have had in your work and education thus far, and they will serve you well in your journey to become a teacher. Hugs!!
Posted by csousa1[/QUOTE]

<div>There's no way to describe adequately how much I can relate to this.</div>

csousa1 · December 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_screwed-up-interview-longvent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:cbb7a416-1425-4627-aa56-1b63efef728aPost:19ce7893-9899-4f01-bd58-6824a1143c8b">Re: Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent)</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent) : There's no way to describe adequately how much I can relate to this.
Posted by Elle1036[/QUOTE]

Haha. It doesn't matter how much I have overcome feeling shy, how outgoing I appear to others, how well I have gotten along with co-workers, BF's family, even certain friends/couples we hang out with - the prospect of one-on-one conversations makes me go -
<a href="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/images/store/9/6/29c33e2f-0e2e-4221-a68a-c5e155406d34.large.png" title="Click to view a larger photo" onclick="return gSiteLife.LoadForumPage('ForumImage', 'plckPhotoId', '29c33e2f-0e2e-4221-a68a-c5e155406d34', 'plckRedirectUrl', gSiteLife.EscapeValue(window.location.href));" class="PhotoLink"><img style="width:241px;height:157px;" src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/images/store/9/6/29c33e2f-0e2e-4221-a68a-c5e155406d34.medium.png" alt="" width="297" height="140" /></a>

BookButterfly · December 2011

Hey all,
I have to get going (headed home where there is not internet), but I wanted to say that I appreciate all of your feedback. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one dealing with these anxieties--be them in a job interview or a two hour car ride home!

I WILL read your replies later tonight (if there are any more), and I do appreciate them. I'm sorry I so often can't respond, but I do read through everything and take what you say into consideration--even on threads that aren't my own but that I, too, struggle with. =)

The following with be my mantra for interview from now on:
[QUOTE]Every interview you bomb makes you more likely to nail the next one.[/QUOTE]

Thank you all so much. I love you ladies!

lunarsongbird · December 2011

So my last interview for this position I'm in now....I was so nervous because I was just so darn excited and passionate about the position.

My interviewer (my now boss)- offered me a bottle of a water- and I proceeded to spill it down my shirt. And I'm in HR for godsakes...this is what I DO. LOL.

But my passion and heart shined through- and I got the job.

So you said something important-
"My interviewer (who I know fairly well) said that she wanted to follow up with me after a few months of student teaching with them in February to set up the in-person interview."

They are interested in doing a in-person interview? Hello?! This is AH-MAZING. They liked you, Book....they liked you.

Interviewers are often not looking for the content in your answers...but your passion, your heart, your potential.

And regarding the content- the fact that you know that sub difficulties are different then faculty difficulties...that alone is huge. And sub difficulties are just as difficult....just different. And the fact that you've been exposed to so many different lesson plans? That's fantastic.. You have been able to see first hand what works and what doesn't. You have the opportunity to take the best pieces of lesson plans that you have seen- and incorporate them into your future lesson plans.

Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent)

Re: Screwed up my interview... (Long/Vent)

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