How not to be nervous for an interview? Every human being has gone through at least one instance of nervousness before an interview or during one.
It is normal to feel a tingly sensation in your stomach and spasms throughout the muscles of your body just before you meet with the CEO of the company you have always wanted to have a job at.
So, how do we deal with this nervous energy that can potentially ruin our chances of getting hired? Read on to find out how to not be nervous for an interview!
10 ways to avoid being nervous pre-interview:
How do we deal with interview nerves and sweaty palms before we meet with a potential employer? How do we ward off the interview anxiety and shaky hands? Following are 10 ways to avoid being nervous pre-interview.
1. Cut off your caffeine intake
Caffeine is known to cause anxiety, even in people who do not often feel nervous. Still, if you are already nervous about your interview, caffeine can cause you to feel jittery and can worsen your interview anxiety.
Cut down on your caffeine intake entirely starting at least 1 week before the day of your interview to calm nerves for your big event.
Read more about the effects of caffeine on anxiety here: https://www.healthline.com/health/caffeine-and-anxiety#:~:text=%E2%80%9CHigh%20levels%20of%20caffeine%20can,is%20safe%20in%20low%20doses.
2. Be well prepared.
Prepare answers before your interview. Practice by answering common interview questions and taking a mock interview. If you are feeling prepared, you will feel confident and stay calm.
Answer key questions the interviewer will likely ask in your own words so that the interviewer knows that you are genuinely interested in the job. This will help you leave a positive impression on your interviewer.
3. Meditate
Meditation is a great way to calm your nerves and ward off all negative thoughts. A calm and composed body language makes all the difference between a bad interview and a great interview. To ace your job interview, you must stay calm and answer cleverly.
4. Practice deep breathing exercises
Deep breaths are a saviour when you have to deal with any stressful event. A few deep breaths help you calm your nerves to a miraculous extent. Deep breathing is, in fact, one of the most used methods to deal with interview nerves.
In this video, Nicklaus Childrenโs Hospital teaches you the right method to practice deep breathing.
5. Focus on your health.
Health does not only consist of your physical state; it also includes your mental state. Under too much pressure, a personโs body gets affected as well.
It is important to have a good breakfast and to exercise regularly. Physical exercise helps you stay calm and gives you more control over your body language.
6. Change your thought process.
We often harbor negative thoughts and worry ourselves by expecting only the worst-case scenarios in stressful situations. To deal with interview anxiety, you need to talk to yourself positively and in an empowering manner. It would be best if you were rational and practiced positivity. This will help you feel relaxed and help you focus on your interview.
7. Expose yourself to situations that make you nervous.
As counterintuitive as it may sound, this method is extremely helpful in dealing with those job interview nerves. An in-person interview prepares you to deal with situations where you feel nervous and anxious. With more and more experience in such situations, you practice how to relieve nerves and focus on the interview.
8. Practice in front of an audience before your interview.
The audience can be a family member, a friend, or whoever the best person you believe to be to give an interview in front of. Arrange the place where you will attempt the mock interview to resemble an interview room and replicate the interview process.
The person interviewing you should act like your interviewer and ask you legitimate interview questions. You should prepare answers to these questions beforehand and focus on being calm and controlling your nervous emotions.
9. Listen to cheerful songs.
An excellent way to get rid of those interview nerves is by putting on your headphones and playing some relaxing tunes. Cheerful music can be of great help to calm your nerves and take care of that interview anxiety.
I have added the playlist links to some of my favourite calm tunes so that you donโt have to go scurrying about searching for music to listen to, and you can directly start the calming process!
10. If the problem persists, donโt be afraid to seek professional help.
Professional advice is essential in some cases. If you feel that no matter what you do, you cannot bring yourself to behave or talk properly when you are nervous, you should not hesitate to visit a doctor.
Seeking help will help you steer clear of job interview nerves and teach you how to manage your body language better. Remember that it is perfectly normal to seek help from a mental health professional.
It is also essential to keep in mind that sometimes job interview nervousness or nervousness, in general, can be a sign of some underlying mental disorder that has not been diagnosed yet.
Often nervousness is considered to be a symptom of an anxiety disorder. There exist a plethora of anxiety disorders triggered by various things or surroundings. Do not worry; these disorders can be treated and helped with the right treatment and medication.
You can read about the various anxiety disorders here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961#:~:text=Common%20anxiety%20signs%20and%20symptoms,impending%20danger%2C%20panic%20or%20doom
10 ways to deal with nervousness in the interview room.
How do you deal with interview nerves when you are already in the room? How do you stop stressing over baseless worries such as whether you are wearing the right clothes or not or if your breath stinks (even though you just chewed a mint!)
Following are 10 ways you can deal with nervousness in the interview room.
1. Breathe.
When you are nervous before your job interview begins, breathe. It will calm your nerves and make you confident before your job interview.
Breathing thoroughly helps in the supply of oxygen to your entire body, but most importantly, it helps in the supply of oxygen to your brain. You can think and reflect more clearly when your brain has enough oxygen to function properly.
2. Body language can either end all, or be all.
In your job interview, your body language is one of the most important things that the interviewer will judge, second only to your speech. Always maintain eye contact with your interviewer when you answer his questions.
But be careful, do not make it look like an effort to maintain eye contact, be natural. Sit upright and answer the questions in a firm and confident voice. Remember, how your body behaves is very important in your job interview.
3. Self-affirmations are important.
You should affirm your capabilities and believe in yourself. Self-affirmations and positive self-talk help in developing confidence in oneโs own self.
You should tell yourself that you are enough and mere job interviews cannot and should not make you feel bad about yourself. This attitude will help you to answer the job interview questions smartly and cleverly.
4. Accept your feelings.
Acknowledging oneโs problems is the first step in solving those problems. If you are feeling nervous, acknowledge your emotions. Do not force positivity on your mind, rather try to help it grow in yourself.
You cannot try to work on something if you do not even believe it to be real. Therefore, it is not only constructive but essential to acknowledge your true feelings to help yourself feel less nervous about your job interview.
5. Donโt force yourself to be perfect.
Nervous emotions arise in one when he thinks that only perfection is acceptable. If you force perfection on yourself, you add more fuel to your interview nerves. Do not try to be perfect because perfect does not exist. It is humane to make mistakes.
It is said that if a person never makes mistakes, he never learns anything. And in job interviews, it is normal to mess up every now and then. The interviewer does not expect you never to make any mistakes, and rather, he checks how you deal with the mistakes that you make.
6. Remind yourself of your rehearsal and be confident.
Remind yourself that you are prepared and ready for this job interview. Do not give in to interview nerves and believe yourself to be unprepared.
Remember the days you have spent toiling over this job interview, how much you have prepared, and how worthy you are of this job. Do not let anything pull down your confidence in yourself.
7. Harbour positivity.
Turn your negative emotions into positive thoughts. Do not think that you will end up unemployed if you donโt get this job. There are hundreds of other jobs that are available for you.
A job searches worthy candidates for itself. Remind yourself that you are worthy. If you do not get this job, big deal! You will get another one. Chill out and be a friend to yourself in times of hardship.
8. Think rationally.
When our mind is stressed, it tends to exaggerate situations and instances. This tends to cause more tension in our bodies and our mind. Job interview nerves can cause stress, and it can worsen our situation of nervousness. To deal with stress, one has to think rationally and remind oneself to not believe everything their brain tells them.
You have to know that under pressure your brain may malfunction and tell you things that are not true. You need to recognize these untrue thoughts and act rationally. You should control your actions, especially in extreme stress and anxiety.
9. Relax your body.
When we have the job interview nerves, we often hunch our shoulders, tighten our jaw and curl up our toes without our knowledge. This actually leads to stiffness of the body, which in turn leads to stiffness of the mind.
When your body is uncomfortable, your mind automatically becomes uncomfortable, too, with or without your conscious knowledge. You cannot hope to woo the interviewer when you barely talk. Professionals advise yoga and pranayama to train your body to remain calm during times of nervousness.
10. Donโt be too serious.
In life, we learn, experience, and most importantly, have fun. If you are too serious about your job interview, you are already taking out all the fun. Great personalities often advise people to focus on having fun in life.
A job interview can be a new experience for some people; therefore, it is important to relax and enjoy the whole process. this type of mindset will help you to answer the job interview questions in a cheerful and attractive manner.
Interviews can indeed get very stressful! But these interview nerves can be handled and they are manageable. Do not believe yourself to be lost or alone; there are thousands of people who suffer from the exact same things as you do.
There are also people who are always ready to help you through your sufferings and people you can reach out to.
With discussions come solutions; therefore it is always a great idea to connect with people who share similar experiences with you and have the same anxieties as you do; this practice can help you discover new and innovative ways to deal with your interview nervousness and someday, perhaps you can help others deal with their nervousness as well!
The most important thing is to have faith in yourself and believe that you are more powerful than your emotions and can conquer whatever stresses you out.
Last Updated on by Sathi
