I had a big job interview this morning and the experience gave me a great idea to discuss a few pointers on how to deal with something I was feeling a lot of – nerves. There is plenty of advice out there about how to conduct an actual interview but what about the time before the interview? Everyone suffers from anxiety when it comes to them and I will tell you here and now that you can’t magically make it disappear. However, I experimented with several strategies to try and control my nerves which I found effective, so I’ve covered them in detail below. Hope they work out for you as well as they did for me!
- You have nothing to lose (other than the job)
If you just happen to make a fool of yourself, or not come across as you would have wanted to, so what? You won’t see your interviewers ever again and at the very worst you have just wasted a few hours of your time. There will always be other opportunities out there. - Prepare, prepare, prepare!
If you know what you want to say, what points you want to get across, where you are going in your life and career, what the company is about and what the job entails, then that’s going to be a big weight off your shoulders. If you are fully prepared for whatever they throw at you, you won’t worry so much about being caught out. - It will all be over soon enough
Take, for instance, that your interview is at 10.30 and it goes on for thirty minutes. Hold onto the thought that by 11.00 it will be all over. However well you do in the interview, remind yourself that in two hours, one hour, fifteen minutes time, it will all be done with and you can put it to the back of your mind for a few weeks. - Cope with your nerves at a physical level
The simplest approach is to take deep, slow breaths to relax yourself. Also, body parts like your shoulders and jaw tense up too so loosen them up too. Shake your limbs, roll your shoulders and wriggle your jaw (preferably when nobody is looking, obviously). - Get there on time
You are going to have some nerves whatever happens, you can’t really control that. However, one thing you can control is your punctuality. While this usually means sitting there dwelling on all that anxiety you are feeling, it is much more preferable to rushing around and panicking about being late. You can use the time to do more preparation and relax yourself. - The interviewers will sympathise
Interviewers know interviews can be stressful, and if they have been trained at all properly, they will take measures to calm you and ease you into proceedings with casual conversation and breaker questions. Keep in mind that they want you to be relaxed as they get a better overall picture of you. Tell yourself that you aren’t going in to be interviewed by monsters.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks-
Instant Internship