Interview recovery in follow up
I interviewed for a great job yesterday. It was the third and final interview. I am one of three final candidates. Throughout the interview process I' ve felt rather confident about my chances but I think I made a major mistake in my last interview and I' m wondering if I can recover from it in my follow-up email. Beyond this mistake I think I have all the qualifications that the company is looking for. First, I' ve been self-employed for just over 2 years. I love what I' m doing but decided to return to the job market because I miss many of the things a regular job can offer. I had a pretty successful career in IT but took a break to pursue other interests and other industries. Now I' m going back to IT. So... I met with a three person panel as part of the last round of interviews. As we are settling into the interview and trying to relax I am asked about why I would leave self-employment to return to the workforce -- I tried to make a joke saying something about how in my mind taking a job seems almost like a vacation compared to the amount of time I' ve been working. One person in the panel (who was the least personable) seemed shocked at my response by making an odd facial expression... like I was making light of the job itself. I did not mean it in that way at all... and I tried to recover by explaining that while I may not be in front of the computer or with clients 24x7 that I was still consumed with all the work and thinking constantly about my next client, my next check, etc. Throughout the interview I tried to make it sound like I had everything that they were looking for... and I really clicked with 2 of the 3 interviewers. I also met with the hiring manager for a second interview after the panel interview and I feel strong about his opinion of my skills. But I' m worried that I didn' t make it clear to the panelists that I want THIS job... I think I can do an awesome job for this company... I think instead I made it sound like I just want the job to relieve me of the challenges of self-employment..... and to move from my current geographical location. Can I honestly recover from this mistake in a follow-up email? Do I send individual emails to each interviewer on the panel or can I send one to all three? Any ideas? Am I making too much out of this? Send an email to each individual. Stress the good points of the interview. If you try to cover for your mis-speak, it may be taken as just that. A cover-up. I just so happen to like panel interviews because I can get it over with quickly and I don' t have to psych myself up for the same questions three times for one company. And, as someone who has been on a panel interview, but I was filling in as EEOC, there is ALWAYS one person on the panel who has no sense of humor and is as personable as parrot whose cage is covered with a black sheet all day. That person will never think anyone is good enough and is usually only there so that the panel can have all seats filled.
Do you think I need to make sure each email is completely different from one another or can I make "similar" comments to each interviewer? I think the gist of it should be the same to all--how good a fit you are, and how much you want this particular job! You can use your thank-you note to reinforce to them that, yes, you want THIS job, not just any job to relieve you of your self-employment. Having been self employed myself for many years, I certainly understand what you meant by your joke!. When people would say how "lucky" I was to be able to set my own hours, I' d say, "Yes, I get to choose which 60 hours of the week I want to work." But I would try to, if you can, tailor each note slightly to reiterate or mention some particular point that particular interviewer made. Doesn' t need to be long & drawn out....
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate the input. You've both helped settle my anxiety about this.
Oh, in case I wasn't clear (which I'm often not!), you of course do not mention in your thank-you notes about your self employment. Just focus on their job and that you would love the opportunity to take on the challenges of this exciting position, blah, blah, blah.....
Well, when you work for yourself, unfortunately, you spend 80% of your time on things totally unrelated to the technical skill that you so enjoy. Things like bookkeeping, sales, marketing, take up so much of your time that you don' t get to just buckle down and enjoy the computer programming (or whatever it is that you do). This job sounds like a wonderful fit because I would be doing the work I love most of the time and could really do my best work.... | |
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