I’m the type of person who gets really nervous during interviews. Unfortunately, I’m not the type of person who can hide their nerves easily. When I graduated from college, I went through multiple interview processes, desperately seeking any type of accounting job that I could get. I was under a mountain of pressure from my parents (and myself), had no work experience, and barely passed every single accounting class that I took.

Since I was entering the workforce with no accounting experience, I had decided to make my ability to troubleshoot and solve problems the main argument for hiring me over someone with experience. I talked about my methodology to finding answers to my questions (i.e. Google) and gave examples from my previous roles and school. A lot of employers tend to end on the strengths and weaknesses questions, so typically I would get to end with this brag.

My confidence was not high for interviews, which is probably why most of them ended with me embarrassing myself. During one I had dropped my folder and had papers spill out. During another, I knocked a chair completely over as I was attempting to bolt from the room. Nothing was as bad, however, as my interview for a popular, local, restaurant concept company.

I was ecstatic when I received the call for a phone interview, and I was even more ecstatic when they scheduled to meet me in person at the end of the call. This was one of the jobs I was passionate about. I frequently ate at their different concepts and the company as a whole has a great reputation in Arizona. I did a ton of research and was ready for every question they asked. The only question that I fumbled around with was about work experience, but I don’t think there was any way around that.

By the end, I felt like I had nailed the interview. Ready to go, I stood up and approached the door to walk out. I pushed on it and nothing happened. I pulled. Nothing. At this point, I was sweating profusely and panicking. I turned to the interviewer and said: “I can’t get the door to open”. She then walked up and slid the door to the right. My stomach dropped.

I clearly wasn’t paying attention when she had closed the door originally, but the real problem was that I sat and bragged about my incredible ability to solve problems and then couldn’t figure out how to open a door.

In the end, it worked out in my favor that I blew the interview. The next company that I interviewed with ended up being the right place for me. I receive constant recognition and made a lot of strong friendships. I also ended up saving a lot of money on gifts for people since my company gives us a ton of free and discounted clothes. The moral of the story is that sometimes things don’t work out, but most of the time it’s for the better.