Did Technology Sabotage Your Job Interview?

Picture this: you went to your interview and come out feeling like you nailed it. During the meeting, you felt a real connection with the hiring manager and believe that all of your answers were on target. Essentially, after shaking hands at the end of the interview, you have a hard time imagining that you aren’t a top contender.

Once you leave the meeting, you decide to take the next important interview step right away. You take out your phone and write out a thank you note, allowing you to get it done without any delay.

But, once you hit send, you realize something went wrong. While writing your note, autocorrect wreaked havoc on your message. In the end, decent portions of the email barely made sense. Effectively, technology sabotaged your interview, making one of your most critical impressions on the hiring manager worse than you’d hoped.

While it may seem like there isn’t anything you can do to fix the situation, that isn’t the case. By taking the right actions, you can repair some of the damage, potentially keeping you from missing out on the opportunity. If autocorrect destroyed your thank you note, here’s what you need to do.

Write a New Email

As soon as you notice that autocorrect changed the content of your original message, you need to craft an apology email immediately. The faster you can send out the apology, the better. That way, you can let the hiring manager know what occurred and showcase that you noticed the problem and were willing to put yourself out there by taking corrective action.

Begin your message with a simple, well-crafted apology. For example, you can state that it appears that autocorrect altered your email and that, in your excitement to send it out, you accidentally overlooked the mistakes. Ask them to please accept your apologies for the error and note that what you intended to say can be read below.

Then, don’t try to craft an entirely new message. Instead, rewrite your original email to fix the errors caused by autocorrect only.

Proofread Your Apology Message

Now that you are incredibly aware of the damage autocorrect can cause, you want to take a few minutes to carefully proofread your apology email. If a mistake appeared in your new message, you’d be hurting your situation, not helping it.

Reread every word of your new email, paying close attention to any changes that were made by autocorrect as well as the areas where autocorrect previously altered your message. Only hit send after you are confident that your message is error-free.

By following the steps above, you stand the best chance of recovering from your mistake. With any luck, the hiring manager will empathize with your autocorrect incident (as many people have fallen victim to autocorrect) and won’t hold the situation against you.

However, you should also treat the mistake as a critical lesson. Always proofread an email before sending it. Otherwise, you might make the same misstep again, harming your chances of landing a job.

If you’d like to learn more, the professionals at The Advance Group can help. Contact us with your questions today and see how our interviewing expertise can benefit your job search.

 

 

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