The Value of a Bad First Interview
Launch library · evergreen read
A first interview that goes badly, stilted answers, an uncomfortable speaker, a recorder that draws too much attention, is often treated as wasted effort by a discouraged interviewer. In practice, even a poor first attempt usually teaches an interviewer something essential about how that particular person prefers to talk about their own life. Reviewing what went wrong afterwards, whether the questions were too direct, the setting too formal, the equipment too intrusive, allows real adjustment.
The second attempt can be genuinely adjusted rather than simply repeated in exactly the same way as before, this time with real lessons learned. This often produces a markedly better conversation the next time the two people sit down together to talk properly. Treating a poor first interview as diagnostic rather than final also reassures a nervous speaker that nothing has been ruined between them.
It shows there will be another, gentler opportunity coming, which can itself help the speaker relax more fully the second time they try together. Most interviewers, looking back, describe their very first attempt as the one that taught them the most about the whole process.