Just finished an interview

kaii

So I had an interview today and I'm a little upset about it. What sucks is that I strangely didn't feel nervous for it before, and then all the nerves just came out as the interview was happening.

I practiced so much for it yet I made so many mistakes. I found myself not making sense at times, and I said a lot of 'um's when this rarely happened when I was practising.

I hate that I find it so difficult to talk - I find it so exhausting for me to speak my mind and to talk clearly to people. I really want to work on changing this because communication is so important. As I practiced for this interview, I thought that I was finally getting better at talking, but it turns out I wasn't. I only had to talk for about 15 minutes. I don't know why that was so hard for me.

I hate thinking on my feet. There were questions that were asked which I didn't prepare for and what's really frustrating to me was that I had good ideas and answers for them, but my sentences just didn't make any sense.

On the positive side, I think I made a good first impression and my answers were good at the start, I think I said an alright concluding statement as well. And the people interviewing me seemed to like me and my ideas. But I don't know, it seemed like they were uninterested in me at the end - probably because I didn't make sense at some parts.

In a way, what happened today made sense since I was quite nervous and this was the first, actual interview that I've had since year 10 mock interview practice. I know that no interview can be perfect, I'm just so upset and embarrassed with myself.

spoon

hey kai, i bet u didnt do as bad as u think. having an interview can be nerve wrecking and no practice can make u prepared for a real interview. good thing is, u have now experienced an actual interview! the best practice is the real thing, so please dont feel bad about it, u did great. most people dont the best at their first interview but the fact that u showed u have good ideas is amazing! even if u didnt get the outcome u want, be proud of yourself! not many people are able to say that.

kaii

@spoon Thank you so much after reflecting on it yesterday by writing about it, I feel slightly better. And you're right ^^ at least I've been able to experience what an interview is actually like. I hope that over time, I'll get less mentally exhausted when speaking. Maybe in the future, I'll look back and laugh at this first interview lmao.

Maisy

I agree with everything that @spoon said. It's definitely a good idea to practice (and well done you for doing so) but at the same time, no amount of practice can quite prepare us fully for an interview. And your first job interview is likely to be most nerve wracking because it's your first one- hopefully you'll start to get used to them the more interviews you do (which by the way, well done for getting to the interview stage to begin with!).

Employers understand that people applying for jobs will be nervous so the fact that you said 'um' a few more times than you'd like shouldn't matter too much. Also, we tend to be our own harshest critic, so chances are, you might think you've done really bad, but the employers perspective might be different!

Glad to hear you feel slightly better after writing it all out