As online students, there are [a lot of] times when we feel inadequately prepared for interviews or internships. We don’t have all the resources necessary to set us up for success in preparing for our future careers. While colleges and universities are doing their best to make sure their online students are well equipped for the future, it just seems like we are never prepared enough.

My philosophy as an online student is to go to as many interviews as you can, learn from each one and reflect on how you think the process went. Did you ask any questions? Did you talk too much or too little? Did you make eye contact?

Reflect on how the interviewers did as well. Did they corner you with questions? Did they miss any questions that you had? Did they explain the internship or job position correctly? Always look back on previous interviews and always learn.

As I write this post, I feel like I’m talking more to myself than anyone else. I just got back from my second interview for an intern position. My first interview went perfect. It was for a nonprofit historical museum near me that needed a content creator. While I’m the furthest thing from a history buff, I love creating content and I love working locally within my community.

It was one woman who interviewed me. She was quiet, to the point, and informative. She asked me questions, analyzed them and then responded back to me. She walked me through the museum and introduced me to a few of the volunteers. At the end of the interview I was offered the internship position, it couldn’t have gone better.

My second interview was the complete opposite. I wasn’t too worried about this interview because I didn’t really want it to begin with. It was much further away and required a lot more work. I went anyway because I didn’t want to shoot myself in the foot and have this internship be amazing.

Lesson 1: Always go to the interview. You lose nothing by going, but could lose everything by not going.

Guess what…it ended up sounding amazing. It was exactly what I was looking for and the place wasn’t even as far away as I originally thought.

I sat in a lunch room with a group of three very different individuals. Two men and one woman. One man was wearing cargo shorts and Vans, the other was in a button down and slacks (very Express looking), and the woman was in a pencil skirt and button down (think, The Limited). They were also a non-profit, but geared more towards event planning and touristy projects.

They bombarded me with questions, talking among themselves at times and going off on tangents. They were easy to talk to and I thought the interview was going great. I like to be authentic during interviews and decided to make a joke about how bad my GPA is.

Lesson 2: DON’T GET COMFORTABLE.

The Express looking guy didn’t like that joke and said that D’s are not acceptable for this internship, only A’s. I could tell the interview was over at that point.

Bad interviews are necessary in life in order to grow and to acclimate to the different personalities within the career world. Both interviews were held by completely different people with different styles and in different job sectors.

While you always need to be authentic, you also need to change your disposition according to the atmosphere you are interviewing in. Know that it’s okay to bomb an interview (I’m still working through that concept myself as I write this), just make sure you realize where you went wrong and how to go back and fix it.

As online students, we really need to take advantage of every opportunity our school sends us for resume building, mock interviews, and internship databases. At the University of Florida, they have an online Career Center, which helps students with all those things. If you don’t live near the school and need help with interviewing, look at your local community college and see if they have a career resource center where you can actually do practice interviews face-to-face.

My philosophy isn’t the best way to hone your interview skills. It is also a pretty discouraging route to go as well. Save yourself the pity party (similar to the one I threw myself today) and practice, practice, practice.

Use your resources, and if you aren’t near to your current school, use a local community college. One bad interview is good, two is okay, and three…well, that just means you need to sharpen your interviewing skills.