Being nervous at an interview is not a bad thing. If you’re looking to change your career, gain a promotion or take on a fresh new challenge – it means a lot. So, feeling nervous goes hand in hand with selling yourself and proving your skills to a future employer.
Being able to overcome these nerves and use them productively is vital when you’re preparing for an interview. Managing the nerves will give you your best shot at performing to the best of your ability. Here are a couple of ideas to consider:
Do your homework – prepare & research
What can you find out about the company you’re meeting with? Go through their website, social media, blogs, current staff profiles, past employee’s profiles. Know who you’re meeting, have some understanding about company values, their approach to their marketing – get a good feel for who they are, what they do and, ideally why they approach things as they do. There is a huge amount of information out there that you can research.
Remember that the person you’re meeting with will be keen to see that you have knowledge of their business and that you have showed initiative and drive to find out what you can about them.
Make sure you have read and re-read and fully understand the job specification and person specification.
Fuel your day – hydration, food and sleep.
Prep your body with a good sleep, water and sensible food to be ready for the day ahead. Working on your research the night before and cramming it in will impact your sleep. Settle the night before, put your planning and prep at the front door and switch off to get a good night’s sleep.
Have you planned your journey, outfit, parking, timings to arrive?
Thinking ahead to make sure nothing can cause you stress on your way to your interview will help to make the day go smoothly. The last thing you want is to have outfit mishaps, delays, nowhere to park, late public transport all culminating in you being late – it will make you more nervous when the interview starts. So, plan plan plan!
Empathy & rapport building
You are meeting a person, someone who has been through interviews too, who may well also be feeling anxious about conducting the interview. Don’t forget the human element to an interview. Build rapport, use conversational language to start the relationship, make sure you remember that you are being interviewed for the skills and attributes of the specific job but also – and often more importantly, the interviewer wants to see how you will fit into the team. How you will get on with the rest of the business – be human in your approach – it will go a long way.
Breathe!
Calming your nervous system naturally by using stress relieving breathing techniques will give you the edge!