My Job Offer Was RESCINDED! My #1 Regret

I was told I was getting a job and then that job offer was revoked. I made one fatal mistake. And after coaching thousands of people in the job search, as a career strategist, I've seen that you may have made this mistake too. Here is the story of what happened to me, my biggest regret. And there is a twist ending that you won't see coming. This is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann. I'm a human resources leader and job search strategist. You may have seen me in these places. New videos on Thursdays. This all begins where I was interviewing for a job that truly seemed perfect. It was the right title. It was a really easy commute, 10 minutes away from where I lived and seemed like a great company in my target industry. I got on to the first round interview and the recruiter, his name is Michael, he was talking to me and he said, wow, you are absolutely the perfect, perfect candidate for this role. I'm so excited to pass you along to the hiring team for a second round interview. Now that was incredible to get that feedback right off the bat. So then I did the second round interview. Right after that interview, Michael called me and said, I just spoke with the hiring manager. She loved you. She thought you did an amazing job and you're skating right along to the third round interviews. Now, I had never worked with someone such a responsive recruiter. He was just constantly giving me updates, giving me feedback, telling me what to expect at each stage of the interview process, which I thought was fan freakin tastic. Now, I do realize that this is unusual. You might go days or even weeks between hearing from a recruiter. So if you do need help getting in touch with recruiters, I will link email templates that you can grab and download and use to follow up with recruiters to make sure you're getting responses, because I know they're not always as responsive as we'd like. By the time I get to the third round interview, Michael says, it's down to two people, you and another candidate. You have got this. And so I do the interview and just like clockwork, Michael calls me and says, madeline, you did it. I just spoke with the hiring team. They went back and forth between you and the other candidates, but. But they said, you are the right person. You are the person they want on the team. And there is now no one else in this interview process. It's just you. I was so elated. This was the best news ever. I felt like I completely aced this process. I was like a seagull with A french fry. So excited. Like one of those football players who does their victory dance before they're even in the end zone. And he said, the rule is yours. Except for one thing. Yes? The VP of the department wants to meet you. She wants to see who they chose and make sure she meets you before you sign your offer. I said of course. So a few days later I show up to the office to meet with this vice president. I can still remember the outfit I was wearing. There was nothing necessarily wrong with the outfit, but it was a little bit casual. It didn't have that air of boss level professional power outfit. I had all these great power outfits and I let those at home. I wore my more casual whatever stroll in the park outfit. I go into the session and I'm really viewing it as a coffee meeting with the department head with with someone who I'm going to work with in the future as a little get to know you. She starts asking me questions. These are hard hitting questions. She's going over my past experience. She's asking tell me about a time when question. She's really getting me to think deeply about different situations I'd be in this position and how I would solve them. Even the way I answered the very first question she asked. Tell me about yourself. I answered in more of a casual way. Some professional, some personal. Which is definitely what you should not do. And I normally wouldn't do that. But I was just so jumbled up. And if you do need help with that answer because, because that could make or break you, I will link a worksheet to help you build out your tell me about yourself answer. That is super helpful. So anyway, so all these questions, I just wasn't bringing hard hitting answers. I was a bit easygoing about my replies. Interview. Madeline brings the heat she hits on all 15 competence triggers. She does a show don't tell. She really tells her stories in the interview. And if you're curious about any of those things I just listed, make sure you attend my free five day masterclass where we dive into how how to be irresistible in the hiring process in a very very deep and strategic level. I'll link that below. And note that in the interview, carefree can appear careless, unspecific can appear inexperienced and unenthusiastic, can appear bored or aloof. You really have to come into an interview in it to win it. I will link my full preparation routine in the comments below. What I would have done had I actually approached this interview correctly. I then left the interview and a day goes by. No call from Michael. Three days go by. No call, no offer, nothing. A week goes by and I receive an email that says, thank you so much for interviewing with us. We extended an offer to another candidate and they have accepted. We wish you the best in your career. This was absolutely devastating. That feeling like my future slipped through my fingers. I emailed them back and asked them what I did wrong. And you can see here the exact email I sent to them. Now, I sound pretty normal and put together in this email, but I'm telling you right now, I was a wreck. I was an absolute disaster zone. They replied back and said, madeline, you did absolutely nothing wrong. It was just a very competitive role. The VP was interested in speaking with both of you, and ultimately it was such a close call. But we went with the other person, me. Now, despite them reassuring me that I had done absolutely nothing wrong, I knew I screwed it up. Sunday brunch, Madeline showed up to the interview instead of Monday boardroom Madeline. I know had I viewed that interview differently, I would have blown the lid off of this interview. There would have been no chance that they would've even thought to bring back another candidate because I would've been such a sure thing. My number one regret was not viewing this interview as what it was, an interview. It was not a coffee meeting. And know that you do not have the job until you have signed that offer letter. And honestly, you don't even have the job until your butt is in that seat the first day of the job. I have seen a lot of job seekers make these types of mistakes, especially when it's an internal interview. You already work at the company and you're interviewing for another role. And I see all the time that they think, oh, well, my coworkers know me, so they don't take the interview as seriously. They lose the job. I will link a video that will help you with internal interviews if that's what you're focused on. Has this situation ever happened to you where you were given the idea that you were going to get an offer and then didn't put in the comments? Never happened to me. Or happened to me. I'm very curious to hear if there's anyone else in this boat. Okay. But here is the twist ending. Ten months later, I get a call and guess who it is. Our good old friend Michael. He's calling me to say that in under a year, this person had been hired and left the company for a different opportunity. In his voice, he sounded so disgruntled, and he mumbled, we should have hired you. I told the hiring team, we should have hired you, but they went with this other candy and they were the wrong fit. And he said, is there any possible way you would be open to taking this role? Now it's yours. Will you take it now? I was very happy I got an even better job than that one. And so I was extremely happy where I was. So I said, nope. But I will keep in mind anyone in my network who might be a good fit. But here's the thing. Here's the reason why they offered me the job after the fact is because I was gracious, even though I was completely heartbroken. I not only didn't give them any attitude back, but I sincerely thank them for including me in the process. And I complimented them and said, I hope to work with you in the future. I hope my story can either comfort you or help you in some sort of way, or just gawk at how terrible that situation was and how much I screwed it up. Make sure you like this video. And if you haven't yet subscribe to this channel, you've got this WI fi high five.