Sweaty palms, jiggling legs, concerns about forgetting past qualifications and making a fool of yourself; the moments before a job interview can be tense and incredibly nerve-wracking. We’ve all been there.
In reality, there is no magical formula for banishing job interview nerves entirely and, regardless, they’re often a good thing, but there are a few things you can do both before the big day and during the interview itself to put yourself at ease.
The night before the interview
It’s sometimes a good idea to scout out the interview location the night before – particularly if you’re not familiar with the area. The last thing you want to do is arrive late and getting a glimpse of the building in which you’ll be interviewed may be enough for you to realise that this isn’t such a big deal. A building is a building, after all!
Get a good nights sleep. Take a warm bath beforehand, read a chapter from your favourite book or listen to a podcast – basically, anything which usually chills you out. When your eyes start to feel heavy, hit the sack.
You can prepare too much for big events, so make sure you stop preparing for your interview earlier in the day. In doing so, you’ll banish any lingering thoughts about those potentially awkward questions and, in turn, gain the beauty sleep you’ll need.
The day of your interview
Rise earlier than you normally would and have a decent breakfast. Porridge with banana works brilliantly due to the stress-relieving properties of oats and the feel good nature of serotonin in banana.
Watch some TV, read the paper or have a sift through your email – try not to think about the specifics of the interview. You’ve trained your brain for weeks for this moment, so you can give it a rest for now. You can do no more.
On arrival at the interview location
Arrive half an hour before you need to enter the building. If you’ve driven, take some time to sit in your car and reflect on what you want to say. You don’t need to practice lines (there’s nothing worse than hearing a rehearsed speech from an interviewee), but some thought about how you will present your case for employment will do you the world of good.
If you arrived via other means of transport, take a short walk around the surrounding area. The douse of exercise will keep your brain ticking over.
During the interview
Breathe slowly and consistently. When we’re nervous, we sometimes forget to perform this rather important task altogether, and the need to catch short gasps of breath only heighten our nerves.
If you feel yourself tensing up, gently press the point in the middle of your hand and release. This is subtle enough to go unnoticed and is a well-practiced technique for reducing anxiety.
Conclusion
We’ve established that a degree of nervousness at an interview is valuable, but too much and you’ll end up putting in a poor performance. If there’s one takeaway piece of advice for banishing interview nerves, it’s this: remember that the interviewer is human, just like you. They may even be nervous too.
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/worried-girl-woman-waiting-sitting-413690/