Preparation and Anticipation should keep Job Interview Nerves at Bay
The half hour that you spend being interviewed as a candidate for a new position could shape your life for years to come, so it’s understandable that nerves come into play when there is so much at stake. Yet this unwelcome anxiety could damage your chances of securing your dream job, transforming you from a confident, knowledgeable professional into a tongue-tied, stammering introvert who struggles to answer the simplest questions. Fortunately there are a number of techniques you can use to calm your job interview nerves and avoid this distressing situation.
Preparation
Exhaustive preparation is the first weapon in your arsenal when it comes to calming those interview nerves. This preparation is designed to boost your confidence and make you shine at your interview. The first task is to conduct detailed research into the company you are hoping to join, and its key personnel. A large organization will have its own website giving you valuable information about its products, markets, strategies, locations and senior managers. Even small companies will have some kind of profile on the Internet. Armed with this information you should be able to predict some of questions you will be asked and prepare your answers in advance.
Another excellent source of information about the person or team who may be interviewing you isLinkedIn. Many senior professionals and business people have a profile on this website, and you may even find there a mutual contact who can introduce you in advance to your potential interviewer, thus giving you a winning edge which will serve you well when you sit before them as an employment candidate. Even if you are unable to do this, remember that the individuals who will interview you are not gods. They are ordinary people, just like you, who happen to have been given only very temporary power to make decisions which will affect you.
Anticipate the questions
The final part of your interview preparation strategy is to imagine the questions you may be asked, and rehearse appropriate answers. Those enquiries which fall into your particular area of professional expertise should be easy to cover: just think of the searching questions that you would ask if you were the one conducting the interview. You also need to prepare some clever responses to the questions about how you spend your leisure time, to set you apart from the crowd who mumble about reading and movies and watching sport.
Be prepared also for the old chestnut about assessing your own strengths and weaknesses, which means that you have to come up with a weakness that actually sounds like a strength. Pushing yourself to your limits because you are a perfectionist, for example, is a good sort of weakness to have.
Plan your route and clothing
By now you should be feeling fairly relaxed about your interview because you have already played it out in your mind. On the day before the event, map out your travel route to the interview location, planning to arrive early rather than just on time. Make allowances for possible traffic congestion or public transport delays, in order to avoid arriving late and flustered. Also plan what you will wear, and steer clear of brand new clothes and a new hairstyle. You are less likely to feel ill at ease if you are smartly turned out but still comfortable.
Go to bed early, after a light meal, so that you will be in your best physical and mental shape on the following day. Focus on the future that lies before you after your successful interview, and dream of that instead of losing sleep about those few minutes you will spend in front of the interview panel. You have done everything that is humanly possible to make sure that you shine when it matters most, and if they miss the golden opportunity of securing your services it will be because there is a better opening waiting for you next week.
