We all know how it feels to be told that we are doing something right, exceeding expectations, or simply receiving a pat on the back. Unfortunately, life is not a walk through a metaphorical park, and their will be days when things will not go your way.
When interviewing you will certainly experience the calls or emails letting you know that "you just are not what we are looking for". It is usually not much more descriptive than this, and you are left to guess what you lacked or did wrong in the interviews. After similar calls, I would always go back to the job description on the company's website, review the company information, and then try to replay as much of the interview as possible from the recruiter's perspective usually seeing something that I did wrong.
Other times, you may review every little detail and still wonder how in the world you were not offered the position at stake. It is beneficial to review what you did wrong and right, but you should not let it bring you down, or hang onto the unpleasant experience for too long. Some people will consider completely different career paths after a few bad interviews. After a few of my not so great interviews early on, I was talking to recruiters with the Air Force with quasi-serious intentions of making an 8 year commitment to be a pilot. Keep in mind that I have always wanted to fly, and it would have been much cheaper to serve in the military as a pilot than to pay for private lessons and additional coursework to be become a commercial pilot. Eventually I thought about what it would be like a few years down the road, and I could not handle being committed to an employment situation like a military position so I stuck with the business route and won out eventually.
Never make a decision or take action until the effects of a negative situation have passed. It sounds simple enough, but it is much more difficult in practice. Stick with your plan which may change, but don't let it change as a result of something that you had little control over. Most interviews where you were qualified and personable during the session end poorly only because of the ideal candidate perception that the recruiter had in mind before the interview did not match the perception that they had of you.
