Interview Preparation 101

Many people can’t sleep the night before or eat the day of because they’re too nervous. Unfortunately, if you let these nerves follow you into the interview room, they can cause you to forget what you know by heart, seem disjointed instead of smooth, and ultimately sabotage the interview. The good news is that it’s not that hard to trick your body and attitude into relaxing and returning to your usual confident, capable, and charming self with some interview preparation.

1. Workout Early

The nervous energy about your interview is actually coming from an irrelevant old human survival instinct to fight or flight. Your mind has acknowledged that this meeting could be ‘dangerous’ and your body wants to run miles away from it.

Since neither of these options is realistic, you can burn off the energy in another way: by working out for interview preparation. If you can’t schedule some time at the gym, go for a run, do a bunch of jumping jacks or get up early to dance yourself silly in the living room before you head out for the day. Anything to get your heart pumping, work up a sweat, and loosen up your tense muscles.

2. Dress to Impress

When you dress for your interview, make sure to do something with your hair that you wouldn’t normally do. Pull it up or partially up, pin it, comb the part on the opposite side or use a little mousse or gel to sweep add volume or sweep it into a cool shape. While looking good is great, the real trick here is that your head will feel slightly different all day for interview preparation.

3. Remain Calm

When you get into the interview, remember that if you act nervous, you’ll feel nervous. Maintain steady eye contact with the interviewer. The more fun you have, the more genuine and positive you’ll be during the interview which is something all employers are looking for.

4. Treat Yourself

As a part of your interview preparation, plan for something after. Indeed, after an interview, you should treat yourself to a fun day! This way you can plan to go out for ice cream, plan a movie night with a friend, or treat yourself to a nice dinner.

Learn More About Interview Preparation

When you’re calm, positive, and confident during an interview, you’re very likely to hear a call back soon. If you’d like more interview tips or help to get that interview in the first place, contact us today!

For additional interview tips, check out this blog post.