Let’s learn to Calm Your Nerves for your Job Interview! We all share the feeling of nervousness or even anxiety at a point in life, especially during an interview. If we do not manage to address our feelings, we will not sound confident when selling our skills and personalities to get that desired job. Being very nervous during an interview becomes apparent soon as you have trouble maintaining eye contact with the interviewer. In other words, talking very fast, repeating words, fidgeting, or just having a hard time expressing your thoughts are nervous symptoms.
These behaviors from nervousness can become a problem for your job search if you do not address them. For example, avoiding eye contact could not tell accurate or truthful information when answering a question. Therefore, we have prepared a list of tips that can help you overcome your interview nervousness.
Make a positive list of your professional experience.
Unfortunately, Interviews come accross to many as a difficult thing to do. Consider interviews as exchanging information with a stranger or selling an item to someone. In this case, you are selling your skills to an employer and giving them reasons to be the best person for that job. Picturing this scenario alone could Calm Your Nerves for your Job Interview but lets review more strategies.
It is normal to feel unnatural during an interview and not feel like your usual fabulous self. A good trick that you can adopt to help you relax and boost performance is making a list of achievements, especially those you have accomplished throughout your career.
Make sure to list everything that makes you feel proud of yourself. Forget about anything negative, then read this list to yourself daily, especially on your interview day. This step will help you talk yourself into a secure mode. If you can achieve all that, meeting an employer to have a conversation becomes an easy step to take. Always keep a smiling face and project a sense of confidence.
Practice, practice, and practice some more
To Calm Your Nerves for a Job Interview, you need to practice a lot. Practice should have been the first step, but it’s alright to raise it now. I will encourage you to practice having an interview with different people as you can. It would help if you prepared for the standard interview questions that people get asked all the time. Especially for the “open questions” that get asked, such as “tell me about yourself.” Including “why will you be a good fit for this role,” these questions sound simple but could be confusing.
However, preparing for it will help you get used to expressing your thoughts convincingly, especially if you want to sound natural and confident. Remember to cover all areas of questions related to skills, aptitude, industry knowledge, company knowledge, etc. Like personality questions, case scenario questions, personal, professional experience, salary, and benefits, and remember to prepare some questions for the interviewer. Failing to prepare for the most common questions will put you at risk of rambling and failing. You will be taking a long time to answer the questions.
Food that you need to avoid on your big day
Avoid anything that will fuel your anxiety. If you are not a regular-everyday coffee drinker, we recommend not drinking any coffee before the interview. This also includes any sugar intake like pancakes with honey, sweets, or anything related. If you want to feel energized, you can eat an apple, for example. Don’t forget to stretch a little in the morning to release your muscles from any stress and negative energy. Other experts advise meditation in the morning to calm your nerves before leaving for the appointment.
Warm-up and socialize to Calm Your Nerves for your Job Interview
A great tip that will help you warm up and relax before an interview is to meet a friend for a cup of tea or coffee. If it’s not possible and you do not have the time, you can give your best friend a phone call and catch up. Keep the conversation positive. Make a joke; spend some time talking about memories, and feel free to open up if you are tense.
Calm Your Nerves for your Job Interview with the Fact that “ that it’s of mutual Interest”.
Intense nervousness could have many root causes; however, we recommend keeping one solid perspective: it’s a mutual opportunity. Remember that they chose you for a reason; the company needs someone to join their team and grow. To hire a great candidate like yourself, they need to impress you on why you should work for them and not their competition. Therefore, you are going to that interview with the hopes of assessing their benefits, corporate culture, and their offer.
You are looking around for different opportunities, and maybe this company is not the best choice, maybe you can do better. It is also essential to understand that it’s not the only option out there and that you will also take this interview to evaluate whether this is a good fit. But I will warn here that it is essential to be humble and be grateful for these opportunities.
Be upfront and say the obvious ( I am Nervous).
If by experience, you know that your nerves most of the time get the best of you. One thing that can be very helpful if, around the beginning of the conversation, you briefly and casually explain to the interviewer that you are very excited about this opportunity and that you might act a bit nervous during the interview. However, you are very eager to talk about the role and contribute to the company. By stating this, you will manage the interviewer’s expectations, and it will also help you feel a bit more relaxed.
You should note that interviewers are humans too and tend to make room for some of these issues.
Stop Trying and Be “Too” Genuine
During your interview, if at any moment you start to panic or lose a bit of control possibly, maybe because you are starting to feel uncomfortable. I recommend a practice that will help you recharge and gain control. The trick is to stop for a few seconds, gazing down for a bit, and allow yourself to feel what you are feeling without trying to impress anyone or feeling forced to put a mask on and accept the situation. After letting go of the need to force yourself to feel or act a certain way, you will recharge and address your physical signs of nervousness and reduce any rapid thoughts that are causing you to feel anxious.
With these simple tricks, it will be easy to avoid or overcome anxiety during an interview.
