3 Important Tips for How to Calm Your Nerves Before an Interview
The job interview is one of the most important and consequential phases of the job search process. As a job candidate, it’s your opportunity to demonstrate to a prospective employer that you possess that unique combination of confidence, charisma, and communication skills that will make you the right person for the job.
Up to that point, the job search process tends to be mostly impersonal and indirect. Before the interview, the process mostly consists of communicating with hiring managers via phone or email. Then, suddenly, you’re sitting across the table from – or communicating via a video conferencing platform with – another human being who’s asking you questions about your background, skills, and experience.
Given the importance of the job interview to a candidate’s likelihood of receiving a job offer, it makes sense that this phase also tends to be a fairly stressful and nerve-wracking one. So, if you tend to get jittery before participating in a job interview, you are not alone. In fact, a recent survey found that “as many as 92 percent of adults in the United States stress over one or more aspects of a job interview.”
Three Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before a Job Interview
Therefore, it’s important to have a strategy in place that will help you beat the pre-interview jitters.
Here are a few tips to help get you started:
• Eat a nutritious meal beforehand.
Going into an interview with an empty stomach will make it much more difficult for you to stay focused, articulate your thoughts clearly, and overcome your anxiety. To optimize your performance in an interview – and thereby to maximize your chances of landing the job – you should always be sure to eat a nutritious breakfast (or lunch, if your interview is in the afternoon).
Here are a handful of tasty brain food ideas that can help give you an extra mental edge for your interview!
• S.T.O.P. Practicing the S.T.O.P method is a simple and effective way to gain some critical distance from your stress and to alleviate your anxiety. Here’s how it works:
◦ Stop what you’re doing; put a pause on all of your actions for a moment.
◦ Take a few slow, deep breaths.
◦ Observe the sensations that are present in your body, as well as the thoughts and emotions that are present in your mind.
◦ Proceed to your next task with intention and renewed awareness of what you have just observed within yourself.
• Take a walk. Stress is essentially a surplus of tension and energy. When you’re stressed, your body produces a hormone called cortisol which makes your heart race, your palms sweat, and your levels of anxiety skyrocket. Thankfully, engaging in some light exercise is a fast and easy way to reduce anxiety. So, the next time that you’re feeling nervous before an interview and you have thirty or so minutes to kill, try going outside for a short walk. Your body and your brain will thank you!
Jumpstart Your Job Search Today!
Are you looking for a new and exciting job opportunity to propel your career to the next level? If so, the expert recruiters at Tri-Starr Group are standing by and ready to help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help get you in touch with employers hiring in your area!
