Interview is short after disastrous early beginnings (7)
I believe the answer is:
debrief
'interview' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'short after disastrous early beginnings' is the wordplay.
'short' becomes 'brief' ('brief' can be similar in meaning to 'short'**).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'beginnings' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'disastrous early' is 'de'.
'brief' put after 'de' is 'DEBRIEF'.
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for debrief that I've seen before include "Interview after mission (to gather information)" , "get the full story" , "Get mission statement" , "Elicit information" , "Question (someone) after a mission" .)