Confused by my job interview

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I had a job interview by phone. I was very, very nervous and stumbled a lot over my words. My mind went blank but I had some notes in front of me so I think I managed to at least answer the questions somehow, but not to the standard I had hoped for.

However, after every answer my interviewer would respond "brilliant, that's excellent ok next question..." or "that's great, that's brilliant, ok next question" without really given me chance to continue my answer if I wanted to.

I felt quite rushed and the interview only lasted 10 minutes when I think it should have lasted 20 minutes. I have had a bad interview experience before when I was a teenager where the interviewer was really patronising and it felt a little like that again...

I am fully qualified for the role and in my application form I was able to clearly emphasise that I met each point for the job specification.

It's also very difficult to judge the recruitment as it is a role that has opened up suddenly and needs filling quite quickly so I am not sure on how many applications they received or anything. I was supposed to be interviewed in person with three members of HR according to company policy with at least 1 week's notice but instead it was a phone interview with one member of HR with short notice so things aren't as standard and "normal" for this job due to the need to fill the role ASAP.

Have you heard back from the interview yet?

No, it was yesterday evening.

Phone interviews tend to be much, much shorter than in person. I hired someone after a 12 minute interview (and she was brilliant), we just trotted through the questions at a rate of knots. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Phone interviews are always difficult and I always cut people some slack.

Live, learn, and move on. They probably had a heap of people apply for that role. Work on your confidence for next time.

Phone interviews are awkward as fuck - I’ve done them as an interviewer and it’s nearly impossible to judge someone properly for fitness for a role without seeing body language etc.

It might be that the interviewer was trying verbally substitute something for the normal “encouraging head nod” type thing in a face to face interview; especially if you were stumbling a bit; but awkwardly ended up repeating themselves.

Especially if it was organised on short notice, don’t necessarily think it’s a reflection on you - it may just be that the interviewer didn’t have time to prepare properly.

The interviewer sounds rude if he was acting uninterested and disengaged.

Without wanting to knock your confidence, sometimes when an interviewer feels like they have what the need/aren't getting anything relevant from you then can interrupt/move into onto the next questions.

Alternatively, it might be that you covered the answer to another question when answering something else therefore it wasn't relevant to ask you all those questions.

Do you think you were waffling through nerves? This is completely normal and something a lot of people do.

What ever the outcome, I hope you get some useful feedback either way from the interview to help you in the future.

I agree that unfortunately it sounds like they decided they had heard enough and were going through the motions to end the interview.

Take it as good experience, work on building confidence for that sort of interview format. Now when you have another you will be far more prepared for the format it'll take.

I don't think the interviewer was rude, she came across as really friendly but I worry I mistook her friendliness for her feeling sorry for me as it was probably obvious that I was nervous.

When I am nervous I talk really quickly but I felt like her comments whenever I made a slight pause made me feel even more rushed as it seemed to signal the end of my time to answer that question and time to move onto the next one.

From what I can recall, my answers were relevant and I didn't ramble unnecessarily, I just spoke very quickly and I think with nerves I wasn't very eloquent.

I was supposed to hear back either way today and have not heard anything so I presume I didn't get it, but I am a bit disappointed they have not told me today like they said they would as I would have liked feedback.

I have digested the experience a bit more and now all my nerves have dispitated and I have processed it I think my answers were pretty good. I had done a lot of research for the role and I answered everything with the STAR format. I just think my speech was quite fast.

Thats a shame that they haven't contacted you, perhaps give it a few days then give them a call, let them know that although you assume you have not been successful, if you could have feedback on what to improve on. They may just be running behind on making all the phone calls.

Was the job a customer facing role? Ie is how you speak and portray yourself important, or is it just purely non customer facing.

This would be the key to whether talking fast and stumbling over words would have a big effect or not. They might not be too bothered about how you explain it if you clearly understand it yourself. Or you may need to be talking/explaining/working with public or closely with colleagues then it may be an issue even if you know what you're talking about.

No it's not customer facing. It's quite a technical role that needs quite specific experience which I have. I meet all of the essential criteria and all of the additional desired criteria.

Good team work is important for the role though which obviously requires good communication. It's so frustrating as I know I would be perfect in the role but I just struggle a lot in interviews. I have good communication skills in every other format apart from interviews it seems lol.

I don't know how to improve and how to learn to slow my talking down and pace myself.