ARCHIVE :: DECEMBER 2002 :: CAREERS

Rescuing
A Job Interview

How to Salvage
The Opportunity When
Things Start Going Wrong

By ANNE KADET
SmartMoney Magazine

Nervous about flubbing your first job interview?         

Consider the plight of Steve Kaspar. His nightmare began on the drive to his appointment at a Toronto social-services agency, when he spilled coffee on his suit. As soon as he arrived, he made a beeline for the bathroom to clean up. But to his horror, the toilet overflowed, soaking his shoes. He ran to fetch a janitor, then returned to the bathroom to frantically scrub his shoes. “I lost track of time and got to the interview a few minutes late,” says Mr. Kaspar.

Illustration by Thorina Rose

His meeting with a scowling manager went badly and didn’t last long. But Mr. Kaspar, still hoping to make a good impression, thanked the interviewer profusely as he got up to leave. Then he opened the door and walked straight into a storage closet. “That was it,” Mr. Kaspar recalls. “I just broke up laughing.”

Mr. Kaspar wrote off his interview as a lost cause, and who could blame him? When so many things go wrong, sometimes all you can do is wave the white flag and move on. But not every interview misstep dooms your job chances. “For the interviewer, it serves as a test to see how ruffled you get,” notes Monster.com interview coach Carole Martin.

So how do you salvage an interview gone bad? The fix depends on the problem.

The Late Arrival: Showing up more than a few minutes late tells the interviewer you’re about as reliable as a ’74 Pinto. Acknowledge the seriousness of the error right away. “The worst thing you can do is blame something else, so don’t explain that the train was late,” says career coach Deborah Brown. “Instead, apologize and say, ‘I didn’t plan my morning as effectively as I could have, but this is not a reflection of who I am. It won’t happen again.’”

Wardrobe Woes: Torn stockings and magically appearing stains are common interview goblins. If you can’t get to the store for a replacement, at least make sure the interviewer understands you’re not an oblivious slob. Matt Deluca, human-resources director at online gaming firm Flipside, suggests saying: “What a morning I’ve had! Do you know what I can do to get rid of this coffee stain?” An unzipped fly, however, is best ignored. “Pretend it’s not happening,” says Mr. Deluca. “Chances are, the interviewer didn’t notice, and even if they did, you don’t want to make them uncomfortable.”

The Embarrassing Gaffe: Whether you’ve knocked over a vase or forgotten the name of the interviewer, apologize or explain with good humor and let it go. “The worst thing you can do is recall the incident later on,” says Ms. Martin. “You want them to move on to more important things.” Lori Olson, a human-resources manager with State Farm, interviewed a candidate who, halfway through the conversation, suddenly started crying. Ms. Olson would have written her off as someone who couldn’t handle pressure, but to Ms. Olson’s surprise, the candidate quickly pulled herself together. “I’m so nervous. I’ve been preparing for a few days and I became overwhelmed,” she explained. “Could you ask the question again?” She handled the rest of the interview with such poise that Ms. Olson wound up hiring her.  

Playing the Critic: Even if you’re raising legitimate concerns about a company, being too blunt is a fast way to turn off a recruiter. “I’ve seen people say things like, ‘I heard this company isn’t a great place to work,’ or ‘I heard people never got their bonuses last year,’” says Steve Hayes, vice chairman of recruiter DHR International. If your question makes your interviewer uncomfortable, back up and clarify why you asked. Explaining that you lost your last job because your employer went bankrupt will show the interviewer that your concerns about the firm’s finances are justified. 

Interviewer Apathy: A meeting that simply goes flat is difficult to fix since the underlying problem is hard to diagnose. But by picking up on body language, you can adjust your presentation. “Notice when someone’s distracted, looking at their watch and crossing their arms,” says Jane Howse, a recruiter with the Alexander Group. If that happens, keep your responses brief and keep the interviewer engaged with comments like, “Is that the sort of information you were looking for?” Instead of just rattling off a list of your achievements, tell an interesting story.

The deep freeze may also indicate that the interviewer has concerns about your qualifications. Sean North encountered this when he was up for a tech support job at the telecom company SBC in Troy, Mich. The interviewer asked about one mainframe application after another, and Mr. North was clueless. “The interviewer was probably thinking, ‘What does this guy know?’” Mr. North recalls. “He became indifferent, like he was just going through the motions.” Figuring he had nothing to lose, Mr. North broke in and asked whether the job involved PC software, his strong point. When the interviewer brightened up, Mr. North described all the applications he’d dealt with. “We can teach you the mainframe applications,” the interviewer concluded.