Didn't perform as I'd hoped in interview - struggling

[spukalili]

I’m not really sure what I’m hoping to get from posting this - maybe just to vent and process. I had an interview last week and can’t stop overthinking it.

I work in a niche field with few management roles. I’ve been in my job for 9 years and was always encouraged to train for management by our department head. When a post was created two years ago, I couldn’t apply (it was ring-fenced). Fast forward to now, it’s been re-advertised, and I got an interview. I am highly trained in my field, but unfortunately, can't use certain elements of my qualification in my full-time job - overall though, I have the experience and currently do exactly what they're wanting the new manager to do.

The employment process is extremely transparent at our organisation, competency/score based - highest scorer on the day gets the job. There were 4 candidates in total.

Fortunately, I knew the panel as have worked with them all, and they were lovely - one even said they were rooting for me before we began, which helped put me at ease.

The interview had five competency-based questions. I felt positive about the majority of my answers, but now I’m worrying I didn’t mention key points like accessibility, diversity, being more community based, or explain my management experience clearly enough (it's from a second job, which they're aware of) - I feel like I kind of waffled. As it's score based, "buzz words" and the "STAR" style of answer are really important, and I'm just not sure I managed it.

And, for some reason, at the end I blurted out this emotional little speech about how I’ve prepared for years, have so many ideas to improve the service, and want the team to feel valued and recognised. I cringe just thinking about it.

Now I’m stuck replaying everything, thinking I came across as too soft or friendly rather than confident. The candidate after me strolled in (a man, all suited and booted) and just oozed charisma - it knocked any confidence out of me.

I really want this job, not for the money but because I care about the service and the people. I think this came across a lot in my interview and I got a genuine positive reaction on a final question where I mentioned caring about the people of our city, but I just worry that it made me look less "professional" in terms of being able to do the more difficult side of management.

I asked our robot overlord at Chat GPT for some guidance and it suggested sending a short "thank-you for the opportunity" email clarifying one or two things (like my management experience and values around diversity/accessibility), explaining that I know it can't change the scoring, but I just wanted to make it clear for my peace of mind. Would that be weird? Again, I have a good relationship with the department head, we often email about work related things, so it wouldn't be out of the blue.

Any thoughts welcome, I don’t find out until the end of next week, and my brain won’t switch off. I just feel like I've let myself down and it has really impacted my mood.

Sorry it didn’t go so well. Hate that thing of cringey things coming back into my mind! I try to see them as passing thoughts that will hopefully soon disappear!

I wouldn’t email them. The outcome will be what it’ll be.

If you don’t get it I’d try to see it as due to interview inexperience and skills, on the day, since it’s a very specific thing to do, not a reflection on your suitability for the job, and find ways to work on the techniques.

Don't send a follow up, I recruit in a similar environment, with strict scoring, competencies, star method etc you can only take into account what is said in the room, following up with an email would make things awkward. You're just going to have to take a deep breath and wait for the outcome. Lots of people get nervous in interviews, as long as you have met the competencies you'll be fine. It's positive the panel know your work at it gives them context to your answers, albeit officially that's not taken into account it's near on impossible not to.

Don't follow Chat GPTs suggestion. Just wait.

It sounds like it went fine. It's impossible to remember everything however much you have prepared. Just because the person after you looked confident doesn't mean they performed well (or badly).

Try to think about something else until you get the outcome next week. Hopefully it will be good news but if it's not, cross that bridge when you come to it.

I agree with pp above not to email.

I empathise, because I am very bad at interviews and also prone to replaying things in my head.
If there were three other candidates, there's only a 25% chance of you getting the job i.e. it's more likely you won't get it than you will. I would mentally write it off and then it's a nice surprise if you get the call.

Thank you so much - I think I needed to hear this from somebody who is experienced in the area of recruitment.

I don't necessarily think I did badly - all of the panel wrote a lot of notes, I had answer immediately for the questions, I can just see areas I could have improved in hindsight. I think I was perhaps a bit too focused on coming across as genuine, rather than looking at it as a point scoring exercise, and that's what I'm kicking myself on.

I did note that there was only one obvious prompt, which was to do with a little known service that I was aware of but didn't mention, but got it immediately after the prompt. I imagine there would have been more if my answers had been totally rubbish, as I know the recruitment policy encourages prompts if a candidate is struggling.

Thank you so much. It probably did go fine, I certainly didn't feel like I messed it up or failed to answer the questions - just that I might not have hit the points I needed to really excel. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I suppose! Appreciate your post and you're right - I just have to wait.

I hate that post-interview cringe! Sorry to hear you’re feeling dissatisfied with your performance. Absolutely step away from ChatGPT and their suggestions, as a recruitment manager myself I don’t like to receive direct communication from candidates. I suspect ChatGPT gathers this info from American websites, and it doesn’t fit in well with UK behaviours. I received a follow-up email recently in my latest recruitment cycle and found it pushy and totally unnecessary.
You could try to direct your anxious energy, while waiting, to exploring what interview skills training you can access, as well as any job coaching or mentoring opportunities your employer offers. If you’re asking ChatGPT these things, you should find a human to talk it through with - I really benefited from having a mentor at work while I was trying to progress into management. Good luck 🤞

The employment process is extremely transparent at our organisation, competency/score based - highest scorer on the day gets the job. There were 4 candidates in total.

It's the same where I work, and similar format of competency-based questions. However, I am not convinced that any scoring format is by definition fair and transparent. If there is a candidate they like for whatever reason, there is nothing to stop them scoring their answers more favourably - it's still subjective around how strongly an answer evidences a competency. This might work in your favour on this occasion.

I don't know anyone who hasn't come out of an interview and thought 'I wish I'd mentioned X or used Y example instead of Z'. You can't, within the framework of 5 questions, show every single thing you can do.

Ultimately, it's not about box ticking - they want the right person for the role and if that's you, you'll get it.

Best of luck!

I suspect you're being overly hard on yourself because it sounds like it went really well from what you've said. I don't think your little speech sounds cringey, it just shows how much you want the job. And you really can't tell how another candidate did just because they waltzed in with confidence!

I've been in a similar situation with an internal position and was absolutely convinced that I'd messed up - I hadn't and I was apparently the unanimous choice of the panel. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Aww, thank you so much for your lovely response! It is much appreciated.

Yes, I agree, I think the scoring system is designed to remove bias, but there's always going to be bias in some way. I was on an interview panel to cover my job for maternity leave and although two candidates scored similarly, I knew one would be a better fit, so I think I almost subconsciously looked for a way to score them well (we ended up hiring both, but I still remember being drawn to one candidates attitude and genuine nature).

I'm not sure if my experience in the role and with the current team will work in my favour, or go against me. It might be that they want some fresh eyes, completely unconnected, so they can go hard on any service changes. However, I feel that working in the role, I know our limitations as well as strengths/behaviours of the team, so I pushed that as an advantage. It was something one of the panel came back to, when I asked them what kind of a candidate they were looking for.

It's also an incredibly niche area - there aren't many people who do what we do, hence the low number of candidates who reached interview stage. I think, even if others have experience, it's unlikely to be in exactly the same area and style of team, so I'm hoping that works in my favour too.

My other half (who I am sure is sick of discussing the topic now) said that they will have known before the interview if they could see me in the position or not, and all the interview was is a chance for me to evidence this. He said if they want someone else, I could have been perfect, but it wouldn't have made a difference in their final decision. I don't like to believe that is the case, but it did make me feel a bit more "well, that's that" about it.

That sounds fantastic - well done for securing the job! If you don't mind me asking, how do you feel you messed the interview up?

And thank you - it genuinely did come from the heart but I just got the feeling it was a bit of a waste of time, as the interview was over and it didn't really achieve anything, other than making me look like I was trying too hard 😂

When will you hear OP?

4 interviewees for one role seems pretty routine.

I agree that panels can give known candidates they would like to appoint the benefit of the doubt when scoring. But have seen a fair few internal candidates known to he good at their current job not ‘meet the bar’ on the day due to poor interview performance.

Agree that the little ‘prompting’ is usually, though not always, good. I had one interview and scored ‘above the line’ on 3 of 4 areas and below on one area: I only had one ‘prompt’ but scored below the line because my response had missed a key aspect of the Q.

kind of agree and kind of disagree with your H. It’s partly down to the recruiting manager and panel’s pre existing preferences but also partly down to the candidates’ interview performance.

Yes I agree with you - they still have to evidence their decision and note down the answers of the candidate. As much as there might be some bias, they can't make things up, and ultimately the scoring system relies on the candidate meeting the competencies by stating the ways in which they do that. I think I did that to a point, particularly strongly in certain areas, but not as strongly as I could have done in others.

The prompt was very, very minor, and the question was one I felt fairly confident in my answer for. Hoping they prompted me to hit that final mark, not because I'd missed the mark entirely!

I think his point is that there's zero point in worrying or taking it personally, because I either had the skills and they recognise that, or I don't, and it was a sympathy interview 😂

Sometime next week! The wait is agonising. I have to work in the same office as all three panel members too, which is going to be awkward (for me, not for them!).

I felt like this after lots of interviews I went to after I was made redundant. I understand why recruiters use points and expect the STAR method of answering, but it always felt to me like doing a test. I never answered as well as I could have done and always kicked myself afterwards about all the things I forgot to mention. It sounds like you did well, whatever the outcome. Fingers crossed for you.

That's exactly it - I actually had all of my STAR examples written out, breaking down each element, but when it came to answering I just ad-libbed and I don't think I managed to cover it in the same way.

My entire strategy was to be genuine. I know how qualified I am for the role, I know how good my strategy for improvement is, and I even have support from my current team, so I felt that doing the whole "buzz word" thing might come across as too rigid. Turns out that's absolutely what I should have gone for, and I should have rehearsed my answers a bit more.

I just feel really depressed that I had a good shot at being successful, but I don't feel like I performed well. I felt so confident beforehand, and so excited about the opportunity, but now I just feel deflated.

It might turn out positive, so all this anxiety is somewhat pointless, but I just can't pull myself out of the funk.

I just kept thinking about things that I should have said, but didn't, and things that I did say that I thought were a mistake with hindsight. There was one nervous jokey comment I made that my best mate told me was completely inappropriate (although now I know the people recruiting I know it absolutely wasn't 🤣)

Apparently I looked so miserable that they ended up telling me earlier than they had planned to announce it (potential extra funding meant they were considering recruiting two of us) because they felt so sorry for me 🙈

I had a very similar issue except I knew with all certainty I’d missed the mark on some questions, also had the weekend to stew about it. On Monday I contacted the hiring manager to say I felt I’d misrepresented myself and clarified a few points and confirmed my interest in progressing. In my second interview that was mentioned specifically as an admirable move and got the job before the interview ended. Definitely do whatever you need to do to put your mind at ease and wishing you the best of luck!

The waiting is truly awful! Try to distract yourself.

If you get it, brilliant, if you don’t, it’s a disappointment but you’ll be OK in due course.

For the future practicing for interviews out loud is indeed helpful.

As an experiment I’d be interested in how AI might score candidates’ responses against the ‘blurb’ for the competencies, vs human panels!

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences - I'm so glad that you had a positive outcome.

I had spoken to a good friend who has experience of recruitment and she suggested sending a (very) brief email to the hiring manager next week, just to clarify a few points and that I feel I could have provided more examples. The general consensus here seems to be not to do that (which I can understand!).

I do have a really good working relationship with the person who I would be speaking to. I just worry that it might look as though I'm expecting special treatment, or that I'm putting them in a difficult situation (just in terms of transparent hiring, etc).

I would feel better if I could just clarify where I feel I missed important parts out, but I feel I more failed at answering some of the questions in a "STAR" style, which isn't really fixable at this point. It all depends on whether they were able to mark me on the answers given with it being a structured answer. I think although I might feel better clarifying the situation initially, I'd probably just overthink it after I sent the email, and worry it had a negative impact.

@spukalili have you heard yet?

Yes, don’t send the email. Once you have the outcome - whatever it is - consider seeking feedback.