These kinds of things happen. Sometimes people get misunderstood. Sometimes, people’s toes get stepped on. Unfortunately, if this kind of thing happens during the interview, it can be a very scary and sometimes “end game” event. A lot of times, people aren’t sure how to handle their anger, and channel that energy to something useful, and this can really be the end of any type of opportunity for a new position.
Ugg! This interview stinks!However, anger is a great source of energy that you can use to focus you efforts and really figure out what’s going on during your job hunt and interview process. I have four tips to keep in mind, to help you use anger and to determine what’s really going on. Let’s jump into those.
1. Breathe Slow And Deep
If anger is something that you have difficulty working with, like most people, then this is something you should probably practice pretty often. Keeping a routine, to stay calm in mind, is something you need to keep in your back pocket all the time.
Something that I use, not really for anger but for calming down the super stressful events, is a self-mastery hypnosis recording that I made myself on my phone. Any time I take a five minute break, because that’s about the length of it, I just plug in my earphones, and let people know that I’m kind of out of pocket for the moment, or go to a quiet space or office, and just go through the routine.
Sometimes that five minutes with the right material is just the perfect re-balance and reset of any funky stress or anger that’s going on, and really until you experience or try it for two to three weeks at a time, there’s just no way to explain how useful it is. If you don’t have the tactics in mind of how to channel that energy into something useful or away from the person in front of you, you’re going to have to start. This is something that will never benefit you if you don’t know how to use it properly.
Anger has absolutely no purpose, or useful end in an interview. I’ve got the link to my own personal mp3 of this if you want to check it out or YouTube video here.
YouTube Videos Removedwww.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9islARUCA]
2. Focus On The End Goal
If something is just kind of punching your buttons and not really doing it for you, lift yourself above and focus on the end goal of being the right person for this position, and knowing that you can do what is being asked.
I worked with a co-worker that, when he interviewed for a position, had an interviewer that was purposely picking on him about his religious beliefs. Now it wasn’t so overt that it could be entirely obvious and hurtful to any one that was around but it was just inappropriate enough to worry and upset my co-worker and still was safe enough for the office environment I suppose.
I don’t think it was safe at all, or appropriate at all. However there are some people, specifically that have a more authoritative management style, that will resort to this kind of thing and maybe they don’t even believe that it’s a bad thing, but this kind of tactic can really press people’s buttons. If you choose to get upset at that, and react in an inappropriate manner, you’ve pretty much sealed the deal saying you’re not going to get this job.
So know how to rise above that and just look towards the important topics at hand.
3. Channel It To A Job Related Purpose
If you know you’re going for a position that has high stakes and a stressful environment, you can show that, by being able to handle whatever anger is coming up, or stressful feelings that are coming up during the interview, you will be a good fit for that type of high stakes position.
Now a lot of this is body language or the ability to respond neutrally to something that is specifically made to get you riled up, but this is something that you can learn.
It’ll be tough for someone that’s been in a position that isn’t really people-focused but it is something that is trainable and a couple of YouTube or Google searches on anger management or how to deal with difficult people will give you some top tips on taking care of these specific examples of, let’s just say, people that have ulterior motives in mind.
But if you can channel all that to something that’s related to the job you’re applying for, you will have checked that box in proving you can handle the stress.
4. Determine If This Is The Right Thing For You
If it just ends up being that the person you’re interviewing with is so rough and gruff and anger-inducing, you might want to consider whether or not this is the right position for you. If this is someone you’re going to have to work with or is directly responsible for the output of this company, you pretty much have the information you need to know on whether or not this is a good opportunity for you.
If you can see a couple of years in advance that this person’s going to cause a road-block for you, why would you even want to waste your time, and invest your resources in a dead-end path. So use this for your own good in knowing whether or not an anger-producing organization or management structure is the right choice for you.
Get Angry! But With a Purpose In Mind
Getting angry during an interview is okay as long as you know how to deal with it and turn the table around towards useful information. Make sure you take care of the physical things. Breathe slow and deep, focus on the end goal at hand. Prove that you can handle what’s being thrown at you and determine whether or not this job’s the right thing for you, you will have the tips and tactics you need to keep your anger in check.
This is something that we work on all our lives and this is just one high stake opportunity that really does help us benefit in the end. Anger can be controlled. Anger is a response that just needs to be quelled, re-framed and re-focused towards something useful. Not to get angry, but use it appropriately. I hope you don’t have this situation come across you path, but if it does, at least now you have a better understanding of how to handle it.
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