I really did not know which title to give to this post. I had an interview this morning for a funded position. The project I interviewed for would be based at the centre where I am currently doing a MSc and all 4 interviewers in the panel have been or still are lecturers in the masters.

I feel like the interview went really bad even before it started: taxi cancelled on me twice, I had to call in to say I was going to be late... I think that the presentation went Ok, but then the interview started with 2 strong statistics questions (not my background, and supervisors knew this), which got me really nervous and for the rest of the interview I was really blank... I think I gave 2 really coherent answers, but the rest were really bad (one of the supervisors "helped" me with one, leading me to some options to answer).

So, after what I consider to be a really bad interview I don't expect to get the position. However, this is people that I really respect and would like to work with in the future, and I really feel like, not only didn't I show my potential but also like I have shown myself as incompetent. What to do when I am seeing most of this people on a daily basis? I really don't know if I should address this or let it be...

Does anyone have any experience like this?


Bonus: One of the interviewers asked what would I do id I got stuck with research; to what I started answering things like revise the literature again, test some new methods, blablabla... When suddenly she looks at me with a weird face and says:" I mean... wouldn't you ask your supervisor?" So yeah... that bad (and asking supervisors for help is obviously something anyone would do and I have done before... so don't know how that looks).

(Apologies for the rant)

Just put it behind you. It's all you can do! I know how it feels - I've felt embarrassed as well after an interview at my uni. I didn't get it, but then I applied next time round, it went better and I got it. You just have to live it down and move on. You never know - you could still get it. But do you have other options?

In this case, since you know them, I might email them to apologise for being late and say that it threw me off my game or something. Then I would just thank them for taking the time to interview me.

Or if you will see them tomorrow, say it then. Don't say you thought you did really badly as you don't know how the other candidates were.

Try not to worry too much about it. Since they know you, they may just think you were nervous, which can happen to anyone on the day. Also, there is a chance that they were being a bit tough and putting you on the spot, which can happen in postgraduate interviews, as they want to see if you can defend your own work. This happened at my PhD interview and I thought I had done badly, and was then offered the place!

Is it common to send a follow up email in the UK? I am just worried I may come as "pushy". I may wait til I see them I guess..

Oh I sent a follow up email for both of mine - but no comment on my rubbish performance, just the usual professional thanks and look forward to hearings sort of thing. Presumably you apologized for being late there and then. You could do that again in an email if it would make you feel a bit better. I always think that follow up email shows that you are keen and say they were tied between two candidates - that email might just do it!

Like some commenters have noted, put it behind you.
There is no way of judging whether or not an interview went well except for when you are not offered the job.
I went for an interview two weeks ago, which I believed went well, only to receive an email a few days later to say I did not get it.

Goodluck in your search.

No it's not common to follow up by email in the UK, but if I was having an interview in my department by people who only sort of knew me and it went badly personally I would send a follow up email, just in case they were then doubting my ability. Ordinarily I wouldn't bother, because I don't think it makes the slightest difference. Decisions are made that day or the next day anyway.

Thank you all for your advice, I have decided to send a short follow-up email because I won't see any of them in the following weeks. I have not mentioned my performance, just thanked them and apologised for tardiness again. I do hope they realised I was really nervous already.

It might not have been as bad as you think - I've had interviews I thought went embarassingly badly but then got offered the job; others I thought went quite well but no offer. You can never tell, and you never know if other candidates did even worse!

Either way, it's really common to get nervous in interviews, I'm sure the panel have seen it all before, and quite possibly some have had the same experience themselves in the past.

Good luck!

Yes! Good luck!