How do you recover after bombing an interview?

Yeah man I've felt the same way. It's common, and you just have to keep improving on those interview skills, and keep trying

amnesia...do a quick review and try to extract any lessons from it, then forget about it and move on. don't waste time looking back on things that didn't work out.

You’ve got a move on. I once had an interviewer stop me after probably the second question and say he already knew I wasn’t qualified enough based on how I was talking and the lingo I was using on the topic and ended the interview.

Use this as an opportunity to see your weaknesses and what you need to improve for future interviews. But also have blinders, that interview is now in the past, it’s a no, move on there’s nothing you can do. Go out there and apply for 20 more jobs, try to get new phone interviews

Go out for a drink (or two). Rant to a buddy who will listen and offer you a shot. Feel free to get shit faced if you feel like it. The next morning is when the work begins.

In case you're wondering, no, I'm not even a big drinker let alone an alcoholic. But I know what it feels like to crash and burn out of an interview for a dream job. I know that losing that one interview for that one particular job is a hundred times worse than losing a final round for just another job at some random company. Which is why I'm saying, it's ok to feel like shit about it and have a night off to recuperate. Use this one night to get that memory of rejection and the feeling of dejection out of your system.

But like I said... the next morning is when the work begins. You already seem to have an idea of what you did wrong (overprepared, got nervous, etc. etc.). That alone gives you a good headstart - learn what you can and think of how you can address it. I don't think I need to tell you how to address the mistakes, I'm quite sure you already have a good idea about that. What you needed to know is how to move on,

Now that you know what you need to do, turn that dejection into sheer determination. Yeah it was your ideal firm, but man, fuck em. It's their loss. Keep your chin up, and go find that next interview.

We are fortunate to live in a world where you get many chances, and over time you will have bouts of good and bad luck. There will be opportunities you miss that you didn't deserve to miss, but there will also be other opportunities that fall in your lap when you didn't deserve those either.

There are a small number of people in the world who can say a particular stroke of good or bad luck defined their life. But odds are very low you're going to be one of those people. For 99% of us, life will offer a mixed bag of fortunate and unfortunate events, none of which will move the needle all that much. What will ultimately make a difference is mostly up to you.

You got a free learning lesson...the reason I got my SA was that I fucked up so many interviews that I learned everything to do AND not to do. I was war tested and so are you now!

Next time you get an interview question and don’t know how to answer. You gotta whisper talk to me goose.

Keep Calm and carry on! It happens to the best of us. Try to think about what might be making you nervous. Do you feel like you aren't good enough? Debunk that and realize you are(encouraging notes, quotes etc.) If its a lack of preparation then try to practice more. If its more of an "on the spot thing" I would see if your career services can do mock interviews to help deal with the nerves when under pressure.

Find your favorite food/drink/activity to make yourself feel better. Give yourself a day or two to process emotionally (exercise, cry, break something, etc) and get your head back in the game.

You are good enough, you got this! Now go kill that next opportunity!

Take the weekend, and enjoy yourself. Go out and drink, hang with buddies, etc. Then, make a plan of attack and redouble your efforts as you continue networking/interviewing

It's common, and you just have to keep improving on those interview skills, and keep trying.

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Use this as an opportunity to see your weaknesses and what you need to improve for future interviews.

It's okay. Past performance is not indicative of future results

To be honest, I failed on one of the MBB consulting interviews and it was such a huge disaster that I decided not to try for consulting again. Sometimes it's better to focus on what you're good at, rather than trying to bash your head against something unnatural.

Think about it like a person trying stand up. Most likely, you will bomb the first time. You can make a decision that it's not for you, or you can figure out what you did wrong and fix it for the next time.

Also, for interviews, you can't get too attached. I've had interviews that went great, but never heard back, and I've also had the opposite. Interviews can be dumb too. For example, I recently went on one and they asked me what my SAT scores were (I have multiple years of experience in the field and I've been out of school a number of years). I wanted to ask, what level do you get to where that comes in to play? Are you seriously hiring candidates where the decision comes down to something that happened years ago? The SAT question has happened to me before, but I always want to tell them to keep it going--> do you want to know when I learned to read? learned to walk? first time i kissed a girl?