Interview jitters plague a lot of people, and for some, due to the anxiety and stress, are not able to present themselves as well as they normally would. When you are interviewing, you want to present yourself as capable, confident, and calm. In today’s blog, we’ll share some ideas for how you can calm your nerves before an interview so you feel like you are putting your best foot forward.
Sleep Well and Eat a Hearty Breakfast
The night before your interview, plan on going to bed early so you can get as much sleep as possible. In the morning, set yourself up for a day of success by having a healthy breakfast. While nerves can make you feel less hungry than normal, having something with a good balance of protein, fat, and carbs at breakfast will help your body feel calm. Even if that looks like a few bites of eggs with a side of fruit, that’s better than nothing.
Prepare
Another key way to help you feel more confident in your interview is to prepare ahead of time. By practicing answers to the most common interview questions and thoroughly reviewing the job description and company, you will feel capable and like you can handle any question that comes your way during the interview. Enlist a friend or advisor to help you prep and have them ask you questions so you can do a practice run.
Take Some Deep Breaths
Breathing is such a quick and effective tool for calming your nervous system and bonus that it’s entirely free! In our blog on Tools For Your Nervous System, we discussed a few different breathing techniques and all of them would be effective to do prior to the interview. If you’re able to, plan to get to the interview well ahead of time, and in your car at the interview site, practice some of the breathing techniques or simply take some long slow breaths in and out.
Face Your Fears
Part of what can make interviews so nerve-wracking is our inner dialogue telling us we are not good enough. Before the interview take some time to sit down with pen and paper to think about what that negative inner critic is telling you. In an article on Fast Company they expand upon this idea writing, “The starting point, according to Benton, ‘is to write down those things you fear when you’re nervous.’ For example, you may be thinking, ‘It will be catastrophic if I don’t get this job.’ Or ‘My family won’t love me.’ Or ‘I’ll look like a loser.’ Writing down these thoughts, says Benton, will show how unsubstantiated they really are. Of course, you can’t put pen to paper in the middle of an interview, so if your nerves get out of control while you’re being interviewed, engage in positive self-talk. For example, if you’re afraid that it will be a catastrophe if you don’t get the job, you might say to yourself, ‘Even if this doesn’t work out, I will have other opportunities.’ It’s a good idea to have a one-sentence mantra to deliver to yourself in the interview any time you got tense or nervous. It might be, ‘I am an accomplished PR professional,’ or ‘I have a huge list of wins behind me.’”