BellaOnline Forums Career Unemployment Rejection During an Interview

Landing a long-awaited job interview is both exciting and intimidating, and dealing with rejection during an interview is highly disappointing. When you realize what is happening, it may seem very difficult to avoid showing that it affects you--mortifying though it may be. Has this happened to you? How did you handle it?

Corlia,

I usually try to hide the fact that an interview is failing miserably. A savvy candidate can tell, however, by the fact that the interviewer stops asking probing questions and seems in a rush to finish.
If it's a "good candidate" but not fit for the job, I try to give them subtle advice. For example, we were interviewing a candidate who only had experience volunteering in small libraries, unfortunately she was applying for a paid position in a large library, so near the end of the interview I asked if she had ever considered getting experience by volunteering in a larger library.

Another candidate was totally out of his league so the last question I asked was "You are in competition with people who have a lot more experience, tell me what you feel would give you an advantage in being selected for the position." I don't want to dash their hopes, but let them know gently that they may be lacking in the experience pool.