At what point is an interview bad?

[Knickerbocker]

My interviews weren't absolutely horrible, but I had some moments of stammering while (weakly) delivering a couple of my answers.

How much of this makes a bad interview? If I didn't get everything out smoothly with wonderful answers, is that going to be considered a bad interview?

I mean, how much messing up do you guys think someone can do and still be considered a decent candidate?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[justifythegame]

i think you have to be more specific in order for someone on a forum to help analyze. what was the question, what was the answer, exactly how long did you pause. if you take a few seconds its understandable because you were thinking about the question, if it was a really long pause its different and might look worse. if you stumbled across your words then it looks like you're nervous or not confident. it also depends on the school you were applying to. some are more competitive than others. i aced my interview, yet i was still nervous because i was expecting several people to ace their interviews as well, so it would come down to many other factors.

in my opinion confidence is what it comes down to. if you are confident and honest with your answers, you have no reason to pause or stumble, because you are speaking the truth and you are confident it is the truth, its like when you're speaking to anyone else.

 

[DoctorRx1986]

My interviews weren't absolutely horrible, but I had some moments of stammering while (weakly) delivering a couple of my answers.

How much of this makes a bad interview? If I didn't get everything out smoothly with wonderful answers, is that going to be considered a bad interview?

I mean, how much messing up do you guys think someone can do and still be considered a decent candidate?

I know the feeling of what it's like to have a somewhat "bad" or mediocre interview. I highly doubt you have to get everything out smoothly with wonderful answers at all stages of the interview because the interviewers know prospective students are nervous. They know you're human, and as long as your nerves don't get in the way of communicating your thoughts completely, I think you should be fine. As long as you got the message and point across, it should be well taken even if you were not very articulate because of lapses during the process. I had somewhat similar experiences during my interview with Nova, except I maintained my composure, smiled a lot, kept eye contact, and tried not to fidget around. This, of course, required a lot of effort and I had to "pretend to feel comfortable". I remember that as soon as my name was called and i entered the room, i could literally feel my heart pounding inside my chest. As soon as i was asked the first 2 questions or so, I answered them well enough, but felt that my face was flushed with blood...figure my blood pressure went up. Try not to worry about it anymore. I was obsessing about it at first, but since then, i haven't worried or even thought about acceptance/rejection. It's not in our hands.

 

[SoccerCoach10]

I think if you literally can't answer a question, or answer it with an "I don't know", then it's bad.

From what you've described, I'm sure you're okay, as long as you didn't hyperventilate or anything. People get nervous, it happens. As long as you delivered decent answers and the interviewers weren't pre-occupied with fidgeting or anything you should be fine.

I would try to work on interviewing skills though. Did you ever take any communications courses or public speaking? I think that root of the problem may be not enough experience speaking about yourself or a given topic to a group of people.

 

[dijital]

I know the feeling of what it's like to have a somewhat "bad" or mediocre interview. I highly doubt you have to get everything out smoothly with wonderful answers at all stages of the interview because the interviewers know prospective students are nervous. They know you're human, and as long as your nerves don't get in the way of communicating your thoughts completely, I think you should be fine. As long as you got the message and point across, it should be well taken even if you were not very articulate because of lapses during the process. I had somewhat similar experiences during my interview with Nova, except I maintained my composure, smiled a lot, kept eye contact, and tried not to fidget around. This, of course, required a lot of effort and I had to "pretend to feel comfortable". I remember that as soon as my name was called and i entered the room, i could literally feel my heart pounding inside my chest. As soon as i was asked the first 2 questions or so, I answered them well enough, but felt that my face was flushed with blood...figure my blood pressure went up. Try not to worry about it anymore. I was obsessing about it at first, but since then, i haven't worried or even thought about acceptance/rejection. It's not in our hands.

How long did it take you to get over the obsessing part? Its killing me right now...

 

[Knickerbocker]

I would try to work on interviewing skills though. Did you ever take any communications courses or public speaking? I think that root of the problem may be not enough experience speaking about yourself or a given topic to a group of people.

I've taken a speaking course, and I've given several powerpoint presentations to classmates as well as strangers in suits. Without going into too many details here, the stress for this particular interview was ridiculously high. My interview situation was far from equal to most other applicants to this particular school.

I interviewed better at a different school where the odds weren't so heavily against me.

 

[Knickerbocker]

How long did it take you to get over the obsessing part? Its killing me right now...

I figure that my obsessing will go away when I finally get the "yes" or "no."

 

[SoccerCoach10]

I've taken a speaking course, and I've given several powerpoint presentations to classmates as well as strangers in suits. Without going into too many details here, the stress for this particular interview was ridiculously high. My interview situation was far from equal to most other applicants to this particular school.

I interviewed better at a different school where the odds weren't so heavily against me.

Well hopefully you find out soon! Good luck! I'm curious as to what the verdict is I'll think happy thoughts for ya.

 

[DoctorRx1986]

How long did it take you to get over the obsessing part? Its killing me right now...

Well, as soon as i left the interview room, i felt the entire world had collapsed on me. I felt like crying and dropping dead because I really thought "Wow...to make it this FAR only to screw everything at the final checkpoint, i'm dead ". I thought about it the entire rest of the day. The following day, i spoke to one of my friends, who is a current P1 student, and he told me his interview was similar to mine...the interviewers seemed indifferent and didn't ask him much. Point is, i obsessed an entire day before realizing no amount of worrying will resolve anything. I just put everything into the hands of fate.

 

[Hels2007]

Bad interview is when you are struggling to find the flow of the conversation and have to think up of every question (at least, this is my impression as an interviewer). Good interview is when it flows naturally, like a conversation, with questions you want to ask gently woven into it. So someone taking a little time to answer is not bad. Someone giving an answer which is very different from what you are looking for is bad.

 

[7th Heaven]

Well, as soon as i left the interview room, i felt the entire world had collapsed on me. I felt like crying and dropping dead because I really thought "Wow...to make it this FAR only to screw everything at the final checkpoint, i'm dead ". I thought about it the entire rest of the day. The following day, i spoke to one of my friends, who is a current P1 student, and he told me his interview was similar to mine...the interviewers seemed indifferent and didn't ask him much. Point is, i obsessed an entire day before realizing no amount of worrying will resolve anything. I just put everything into the hands of fate.

I can totally relate to your experience. I did the same thing . I got an interview with my dream school but unfortunately I screwed up during my interview. After my interview, I kept telling everyone I could have done much better. I was sooooo... nervous during my interview. I did answer all the questions asked by my interviewer.......but they were not my best. I did not explain my achievements, credentials etc and surely I wasn't confident. I felt very sad.....but now I do realize that what is done...is done.....nothing can be changed. To add to my grief, I haven't heard anything from the school so far.

To Knickerbocker,
I really feel for you. You do have great stats. I truly hope you get accepted.

 

[Knickerbocker]

To Knickerbocker,
I really feel for you. You do have great stats. I truly hope you get accepted.

Thanks... Maybe I'll hear something good. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Farmer83]

I understand your anxieties. I, too, don't interview well. Honestly, I'm quite reserved, but if people propose questions, I try my best to answer them. I don't think the public speaking pre-req helped much, on communicative anxiety. I even managed to perform in front of crowds in high school, musically and theatrically, and participated on the speech team, but yet my anxiety still wreaks havoc on me. Well, the only time the anxiety didn't do a number on me was my 15 minutes of fame on television. But then again in that situation there was no room for being nervous.