Having losing 60% of my hours for my main job due to funding cuts I’ve been working hard to find a replacement. I’m doing well shortlisting/interview-wise and yesterday went to the 1st round of interview for a ‘dream’ job; I’d worked hard on the application and preparing for interview. After the interview was a simple spreadsheet and typing test (absurdly simple and the sort of thing I should be able to do ‘with my eyes closed’).

The final feedback was that I’d done really well at the interview and answered the questions well, but unfortunately had made a couple of data entry typos on the spreadsheet, and that was all that separated me from the other candidates; I wasn’t asked back for the second round.

It was my fault just one of those things (and something that probably wouldn’t have happened in ‘the real world’ as I’m a careful proof reader), but there it is, a momentary lapse at the wrong time (I was nervous and a bit flustered as I’m not experienced in interviews). I think that I’d have rather heard that I’d made an arse of myself and was seriously outclassed, instead of knowing that I threw it all away with a stupid mistake!

Naturally I’m feeling gutted and seem to spend every waking moment replaying the point in the test where I neglected to double check everything before moving to the following stage. The thing is, I have another interview on Monday and really need to stop mopping about and focuss on that; I just can’t seem to let go of things at the moment.

So, what’s the best way to pull myself together and get on with things?

You win some, you lose some.
You can’t control everything, you can only do your best and learn from your mistakes.

Possibly do some interview practice?

Prior to my last round of interviews (I got the job!), my uncle asked me hard interview questions (about my CV, experience and why I wanted the job kind of thing); it made a huge difference to how I felt going into the real interviews, just because of the practice.

We spent hours on it over a few days and I feel it really paid off.

learn from your mistakes.

That’s all you need to know.

Take the rest of it as a really strong positive.

You were basically perfect for the job, but made an error.

So The only you need to change is something quite simple, and you will be fine.

I’ve done a fair bit of interview practice and it’s really helped. This was just one of those silly mistakes at the wrong time, possibly as a result of being a tad flustered by the situation. I think that the thing I’m finding hard is just accepting that it’s all that made the difference.

It sounds like you’ve learned from this.

I don’t mean to be a d**k but your post suggests your spelling needs work, as you said; definitely check next time. Everyone makes silly mistakes when rushing, otherwise we’d all be operating at that pace as normal.

What’s done is done, you have another opportunity to correct the situation. This is really positive, think about how the next interview is going to be better.

Last time you came off the bike, what did you do? Probably get up, dust yourself off and carry on. This is the same!

GO GET ‘EM!

I think that the thing I’m finding hard is just accepting that it’s all that made the difference.

TBH it sounds like the other candidate was chosen for the role and you became a bit of a fly in the ointment, even if you had done everything perfectly they would have had to have found something to fail you on. I have seen this happen before.

dunno recently ive been almost convinced that “whats meant to be is meant to be “

for example i seem to have unwittingly landed my dream job (thats outside bike mechanics) – that gives me office life , travel to exciting places and workshop time to stop boredom in office.

i had to do the standard aptitude testing for it which id never done before- now im gash at maths(5 attempts at first year engineering maths!) especially mental arithmetic and one of them was a maths test – some how i got the highest score in the class and the same on the english/grammer one (and just from reading this youll know im just as bad)

i couldnt have studied and achieved those results if i tried – but they happened ! – my interview prep involved a quick read of the companys website for their background and a relaxing ride with the ecurie neeps !

keep trying , your dream job will come along and everything will fall into place.

You failed on Data Entry!!! This is crucial to companies, massive mistakes can be made by simple data errors. What you may consider minor mistakes like decimal places in the wrong place or typos in your case can mean huge implications for places.

I work in Telecoms where we have rate sheets containing 30-40k of dialing codes and rates. Our guys have to be spot on or we could face being flooded with calls to destinations where we lose a stack of cash.

This was your time to impress! Interviews have got to be spot on as there is just too much competition at the moment so your slight error, whilst you consider it minor, to them could have accounted for 80% of the whole interview process.

Get out and have a ride, clear you head and then focus on the next interview. Do your research, get a couple of good nights sleep beforehand, prepare and then prepare some more. Its hard out there at the moment which means you must go above and beyond what you would normally expect to land the role you so desire.