Preparation for a Job Interview – Overcome your Stress

How to Overcome your Stress before a Job Interview?

If you are offered an interview it means all your hard work has paid off and you have made the leap from applicant to real contender. You are likely to be pleased but also a bit apprehensive.

Most people react to the news of an interview with some degree of anxiety. Interviews are often regarded as stressful because there’s a lot at stake. There’s also an element of uncertainty and, as human beings, we naturally become nervous when faced with a situation we aren’t in control of.

Possible concerns you may have about interviews include things like:

• What should I wear?
• Who will interview me?
• How can I deal with interview nerves?
• What sort of questions will they ask me?
• What if I can’t think of something to say and make a fool of myself?
• What questions should I ask them?

But remember, there are lots of positive messages to be drawn from the prospect of an interview:

• Your application was good enough to get you to interview.
• On paper, the selector believes you may have the necessary requirements – now you can convince them!
• It’s an opportunity to find out more about them, and decide if you want the job or course.
• You’ll get valuable interview practice that will be of help in the future.

With a little thought, you can anticipate most of what will come up in the interview – and this course will help you to do just that!

Do we all have the same anxieties about interviews?

What concerns you about interviews?

Remember that at this stage, the people who want to interview you see you as a strong prospect. They want you to be successful, look forward to meeting you and know that you are likely to be nervous.

At the start of the day, your interviewers will be looking forward to talking to enthusiastic and able candidates and to recruiting promising people. They want to be impressed and get a feel for how well you will fit in. There is nothing worse for interviewers than to spend a whole day interviewing and have nothing to show for it. So use the interview to make their task as easy as possible by being friendly and ready to talk about yourself.

Regardless of their level of experience, interviewers will be ‘matching’ you to the criteria they have established for the job or course. This is no mystery; you have already done this in your application and have met their requirements.

Interviewers are human beings too and will understand just how anxious candidates can be and will make allowances for this. So don’t panic if you have a memory lapse or if you stumble over an answer occasionally. You may be nervous at the start of the interview, but you will probably find that your nerves are controllable and subside as the interview progresses.

In an ideal world your interviewer will be highly trained, experienced, and a good judge of character. In reality, your interviewer may be some or none of these things. Whoever you are confronted with, it is up to you to adapt to the situation.

Most interviews are challenging and you will need to demonstrate evidence of your motivation, thinking and communication skills. But they are also designed to give you an opportunity to talk about why you are right for the job or course. By preparing for it, you should be able to take full advantage of that opportunity.