Quora Question: how did your disastrous job interview go from bad to worse?

The following is a response to a Quora question from a few years ago. Here's a story of one of my many bad days.  One lesson learned from the experience is that we will definitely sometimes have a bad day. We may also inadvertently torpedo an interview.  As you read, I completely torpedoed the interview. After cleaning myself up, I allowed myself grace. I hope my story encourages you to keep going. 

My Response: 
I just remembered a time that I must’ve tried hard to forget. You’ll understand why as you continue to read. Another example where I am the candidate.
I applied for a position and if I’m being completely honest, I was over confident. I went in there and acted a straight fool.
Without going into detail, let’s just say I basically in so many words challenged the authority of the leader. I implied that the person was weak and needed to be stronger to deal with me. (Not what I said verbatim, but when I look back that’s probably what came across). Later in the interview, I started tearing up as I referenced a time in which I lost a close family member. To be honest I was up and down like an emotional roller coaster all through that interview. It was a mess. (By the way, I don’t take drugs).
I’m sure for them it was one of the most bizarre interviews at least that month. To make matters worse, it was a group interview of at least 10 people in the room. So I acted a complete fool for an audience.
To be honest, I’m not sure why I acted that way. As I toured the facility, I knew I didn’t really want to work there and had formed some opinions. But I still never intended to go there and torpedo the interview. Let’s just say I learned a valuable lesson.

So in summary, Let's just say that I acted a complete fool and then started crying. it was a mess and again, No, I don't do drugs, nor was I drunk. I still don't know what I was doing that dreadful day. Now I can laugh about it. When the interview was over, I sat in my car and cried. I was too embarrassed to go in there or to follow-up and apologize for my bizarre behavior. 

Do you see why I tried to forget it? 

Author

About your career coach: 
Nanette Kirk is the President and CEO of NetKi Enterprises, LLC. We help clients navigate their career journey, through career coaching and consulting. Thank you for reading this blog post. Feel free to reach out if you have any leadership or career challenges, I can help you explore and resolve. You can click on the button below to schedule a discovery call. ​

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