You did everything right in preparing for your job interview. You researched the company thoroughly. You practiced your answers to interview questions with a friend, honing your answers to little gems of eloquence.
You arrived a few minutes early, dressed professionally, and delivered a firm handshake with a smile. You went through the interview and answered the questions as best you could.
As you walked to your car afterward, you went over the interview in your mind. Some questions, as would be expected, went better than others. But you just can’t shake the nagging feeling that you could have done better, a good deal better.

You run over your answers again in your mind as you sit behind the wheel, and other scenarios pop into your mind. Finally, you come to the conclusion that you just didn’t perform well enough and that you need to address the problem in a follow up letter – telling the interviewers that you didn’t do a very good job and explaining to them why you weren’t at your best.

This is a case of overanalyzing, which in turn is leading you to do something that will only make matters worse.

First of all, you don’t know how the interviewers perceived your performance at the interview. For all you know, they might have been impressed with the way you performed. Don’t assume that everyone sees things just as you do.

Moreover, even if you didn’t do well, you have no idea how your competition is doing either. In fact, you don’t know anything about your competition. You don’t know who you are being compared to.

And then there is the fact that you are probably being harder on yourself than they are.

So, what happens if you write the letter? The first thing it does is plant seeds of doubt in the interviewers’ minds. If you are so ready to admit to a poor performance, they may be inclined to agree with you as they look back at the interview through the prism of your letter.

In addition, penning such a letter makes you seem a little neurotic. The fact that you feel the need to explain something that you have conjured up in your mind does not help with the impression you make.

Finally, think about it – will any explanation really undo the damage that has already been done, if indeed there was any? Any explanation, especially a lengthy one, is more than likely going to simply compound the problem.
So, for all of these reasons, the best piece of advice here is to forget the letter.

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