AGGGHHHH, okay, I had my interview on Thursday afternoon, and it didn't go well, but I keep having to remind myself that despite it not going as well as I wanted to, that it wasn't that bad.
The thing is that the interviewer did not direct the interview like I thought she would, she didn't ask what my strengths were, she didn't ask what my weaknesses were, nothing about "tell me about a time that you had a problem", etc, but that's what I had prepared for; she asked open ended questions instead.
Instead, she started by asking the open ended question of tell me about yourself. At one point, I couldn't figure out how to connect one sentence to the next so I said "....I'm not much of a partyer, I like to read, watch tv...." and that was a mistake because I made it sound like it was bad that I didn't like to party, like I was that much of a loner or whatver. What I should've said was "...In my spare time, I like to..." There was another point where I couldn't grab the words from my head fast enough so I ended up making some vague statement which I'm sure she noticed.
Then she said "tell me about your work history" and I also ended up making a short vague explanation on that too when I had actually prepared to say way more than that. I didn't realize how tough it'd be to sit there and have her right in front of me, looking at me while I speak and that's what made me shorten my responses, it was uncomfortable.
Then she said, "why do you think you'd be good at this job?" And I hadn't prepared a good answer for that!:afr I had prepared one for my strengths, but not one for why I'd be good for that specific job. When I got home though, I did think of an answer that would have been perfect for it, but it was too late by then.
Finally, she asked "what questions do have for me" which ended up being pretty much the majority of the interview, it was a really short interview. Luckily I was able to ask her 3 questions, : What kind of traffic does the store have, what's training like cashiering-wise and another question, can't remember it.
Yup it was a short interview which I showed surprise at and she said that she could usually tell which person was good for the job through this method. The interview was her asking me open ended questions and then sitting back and watching me perform(answering her questions) when I thought it'd be a lot of her asking question after question.
Looking back, what I should have done was as soon as she said "tell me about yourself", I should've started spouting off at the mouth, sure, telling her about my schooling, hobbies and then spilling everything that I had prepared about my strengths and weakness, etc, cause I didn't get the chance to talk about those things.
Prior to the interview, I had thought of canceling it, but I chose to go through with it anyways and despite it not going well, I'm very glad that I made all my mistakes at this interview so that I could do WAAAY better at my next interview.