If you were busy getting your nachos and wings ready before kickoff and didn't get a chance to see Christina Aguilera attempt to sing the Star Spangled Banner in real time, YouTube captured the notes she wished would go away.

Whether it was nervousness, trying too hard, faulty memory or something we'll never know until we're on stage, she screwed up the lyrics. She seemed to recover quickly, although I personally don't think it was one of her better performances.

While many of us won't experience the same glare of the spotlight as Christina, we've all had situations that were equally nerve-wracking, causing communication errors and moments of regret — like when we've said or done the wrong thing during job search.

In one of our most popular blog posts, When Bad Interviews Happen to Good Candidates, we heard about inappropriate hiring managers. But sometimes, it's the candidates who mess up, and they told us their stories too. [Some editing for space.]

"I emailed my résumé to a company and just as I hit ‘send' I realized I misspelled the company's name. I called my friend who was a recruiter and her advice was to call the HR person and admit my mistake. It turned out that about 1,000 people applied for the position and by calling attention to my typo, my résumé rose to the top of the pile. They called me immediately for an interview." — Marketing Product Manager

"The interviewer basically asked me one question, ‘So, why do you want to work here?' Long pause...me thinking. To this day probably the worst single moment I've ever had in an interview. I had no idea what to say. Finally I started talking. Somehow I must have said something semi-intelligent because I was one of a small number chosen from a huge pool of people wanting the openings. It changed my life. So bad can turn into good." — Vice President, Marketing

"I was job-hunting after a layoff, fairly desperate. I got a call from a recruiter on a day I wasn't feeling well. I tried to casually suggest another day, but he was from an out-of-town employer and wanted to meet for lunch. Partway through, I had to excuse myself rapidly to sprint for the men's room to be sick. Apparently the sympathy vote still counted, since he passed me on with a high recommendation to the client, and I was hired." — Systems Engineer

These candidate gaffes all had happy endings, and Christina? christina aguilera super bowl is the #1 hot topic and christina aguilera national anthem is the #9 hot search on Google Trends the day after the Super Bowl and "Green Bay Packers" didn't even make the lists.

Robyn Greenspan
Robyn Greenspan is the Editor-in-Chief at ExecuNet, where she is responsible for setting and driving the editorial content engagement strategy across the private business network's publications and expert-led programming. She is also a Huffington Post blogger. You can follow her on Twitter @RobynGreenspan

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