Keeping Calm: Overcoming Interview Anxiety
Keeping calm and staying composed can make or break an interview, but it can be easier said than done! You want to feel confident and focused during your interview to ensure you are putting your best foot forward. But how do you overcome your interview anxiety?
Prepare Yourself
The fear of the unknown will worsen your nerves. Preparing yourself as much as possible can help you to feel more confident, reducing your anxiety.
- Make notes: Try not to just rely on memory. If needed, write notes or keywords to help you stay on track. This can be especially helpful if you catch yourself straying off topic or losing your train of thought. You could also write down any questions you want to ask or any key facts about yourself you want to ensure you communicate to the interviewer.
- Practise: You can never be completely sure what exactly the interviewer will ask, but preparing yourself for the most common interview questions can be hugely useful for reducing interview anxiety. Take a look at these common interview questions and these ones. Think of a few good answers so you are prepared!
- Role Play: Another good way to prepare is to role play your interview with someone trusted to help you practise and identify areas you might need to improve. Read this article for more information on conducting a mock interview to help you prepare and improve your interview technique.
- Research the company: Learning as much as you can about the company you are interviewing with will help you feel more prepared. If you can, research who will be interviewing you. Are they a hiring manager? Your potential Supervisor? Are you being interviewed by one person or a panel? Finding out as much as you can will help take any uncertainty away, allowing you to keep your anxiety in check!
Find Your Confidence
There are a range of techniques you could utilise to help boost your confidence during your interview. Try out several techniques to find what helps you.
- Active Listening: What is active listening? This is a strategy of listening that helps convey interest and attention. It helps to show to your interviewee that you are engaged in the conversation and can create a more casual feel with an organic back-and-forth. Practising active listening means displaying certain non-verbal communication such as eye contact and smiling. These non-verbal cues can help you both come across as more confident and feel more confident.
- Power Pose: Practise your ‘power pose’ to help you feel more confident! Holding this pose (hands on hips and a wide stance) is thought to increase your confidence and make you feel more powerful. If you are really struggling to calm your nerves and find your confidence before your interview, why not try holding your power pose for a few minutes to give yourself a boost.
- Visualise: Another technique that can help to boost your confidence is to visualise and channel the most confident person you know. Consider how they might handle a nerve-wracking situation and use that to help you approach your interview with confidence!
Don’t Rush
Thinking about or trying to tackle the whole interview at once can make things seem overwhelming or unmanageable, worsening your nerves. Aim to take the interview one question at a time, tackling each question as it is presented to you. Listen to each question carefully and take a deep breath before answering. Breathing will help to keep you calm and pausing gives you time to think about your answer, making it more likely that you will give a good and relevant answer. Take a look at these helpful breathing techniques and these ones that can help to reduce your interview anxiety.
Reframe Your Thoughts
Interviews are just conversations! There is nothing dangerous or risky about them. Try to reconsider how you think and feel about an interview. You could view it as an exciting opportunity or challenge to test your adaptability skills. Remember that all interviews are just professional conversations and that it is a great opportunity to demonstrate your skills and learn from other professionals in your field. You could think of your interviewers as mentors who are meeting with you to help with your career and develop your skills.
No one is trying to trick you or catch you out. The interviewer is hoping your interview will work out well just as much as you are. They want you to be good and be the right person for the role. Remember that an interview is just an opportunity for your interviewer to get to know you and your skills – no one is looking to trick you or make you feel foolish!
Get Some Perspective
You will have had interviews before and most likely will again in future. You may really want this job, but there will always be another opportunity for you to seize. Try not to put too much pressure on just one interview. It’s not the end of the world if you make a mistake. No one is perfect and you should be easy on yourself if something does happen to go wrong.
Conclusion
Keep these tips in mind throughout your interview to calm your anxiety and help you make the best first impression possible!
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