There are few things in the world that get people completely and utterly nervous and out of their mind. I can think of a few: having a baby, getting married, being pulled over, and interviews. Not in that order, but I think you get my drift.
Ohhh so nice and relaxing.Why this is requires a couple textbooks on psychology, human behavior, and other very interesting subjects that we don’t have time to get in here. But, what we can do is give you tools that will help you remain calm and focused on the entire interview so you can take the emotional involvement out of it and channel that energy into proving that you are a good fit.
It really is just a shift of mind, and these four tips will help you maintain your calm and have your best foot forward. Let’s jump right into it.
1) Interviewers Are People Too
These aren’t robots. These aren’t your bosses, these aren’t someone you need to be scared of. These are people, this is a conversation from person to person. Yes, that person has a very big stake in whether or not you get this job, but you have a very big stake on whether or not you take the job. This isn’t showing that you are better than anyone, this is showing, Hey, this is you talking to another human being, sharing information.
Both of you have agendas, both of them are somehow related, and that the ultimate goal is a match that works best for both, people to people. Make it work. Remain calm and know that labels and whatever limiting beliefs are floating around in your head have no relevance here. People to people — ultimate goal in mind.
2) Be Confident In Preparedness
Confidence immediately follows being prepared for something either unknown or potentially nervous that’s going to happen. A lot of times people will spend a lot of their hard-earned energy on worrying. Unfortunately, all of that energy can be taking out of the useless process of worrying and put into a very useful process of proving how valuable you are.
If you run through the routine of figuring out what’s the worst that can happen, what would you do if that happened, and what can you do now to prevent that from happening, you’ll already take some of the unknown factor out of it and be that much more prepared for what’s coming. With that preparedness and the ultimate slaughter of the fear of unknown, you will be more confident. That’s just how we work.
3) Arrive Early To Relax
If you’re the kind of person that likes to show up on time or five minutes early, you’ve got a good start, but you need to do a little bit better. I recommend showing up at least 30 minutes early, depending on the distance of the travel. If it’s really far, I would do quite a bit earlier than that. But the point is sometimes you might need to grab a drink, you might need to use the bathroom, you might need to just talk yourself down a little bit or do a little bit of last-minute research.
There are things that you can’t really do in five minutes and recover in time for the interview, so go ahead and start ahead of time. This is a day where you need to prove your value and worth, and you need to get those things out of the way with whatever way you have possible. Usually, coming up with an extra 30 minutes is not all that difficult, so go ahead and take that very easy step to being more confident.
4) Always Focus On Your Strengths
Don’t remember about that last failure you had and how it proves how horrible you are for this position. If you know that you are really good at communicating, problem solving, and dealing with customers, focus on those and filter all of your answer and proofs of how valuable you are through those strengths.
If you don’t know your strengths, join the Richard Step Strengths Community, and you can find your top three strengths and bottom one weakness for free. Those are great terms and labels that will help you filter everything that you need to communicate through funnels that will help you focus all of your answers.
It’s a matter of turning a whole bunch of words and experiences into something that can be succinctly shared with your interviewer, and focusing through strengths is a great way to do that.
Enhance Your Career Interviewing State of Calmness
Own the interview, be the interview. Be completely and singularly focused on this event that’s happening so that you can channel all of your energy and efforts into getting this position and doing a good job in an interview. I’m not trying to be super spiritual or anything about it. I really am talking about your physical energy and mental processes. Focus these things into being calmer.
The four tips we just talked about will help you do that. If you recognize that interviewers are just people too, that preparedness brings confidence, that arriving early is a very easy step to take, and being always focused on your strengths will help you achieve this. Keep these things in mind, do the work necessary to get to that step, and know that your interviewer will be very much interested in what you have to say, and this interview will be a good step in your career journey.
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