Overcome interview anxiety by doing these simple steps

Do you find yourself feeling extremely anxious ahead of a job interview? Despite the job interview being scheduled weeks in advance, does interview anxiety overshadow your confidence? Then this article is for you.

While career coaches and trainers often say that a certain amount of nervousness before and during a job interview is actually a good sign because it shows ‘you care,’ it can also prove to be a negative factor if the anxiety affects your performance in the interview. There’s a lot at stake during a job interview and in order to stand out from your competitors, you need to be able to come across as confident.

Here are a few ways in which you can overcome interview anxiety.

1. Get enough sleep

Getting enough sleep is one of the most common pieces of advice you will come across in life. That’s because it is just that important. You wouldn’t be at your best if you slept poorly the night before a job interview. Sleep deprivation is something that is almost impossible to mask. When you want to perform well in an interview, it is extremely important to get a good night’s sleep to help keep your nerves in check.

2. Visualize

Visualizing exercises are a common technique in personal and career development. Visualizing your success and your goal helps increase your confidence level and improves performance. Several studies indicate that visualizing techniques are more than just positive thinking, but tremendously help in shaping one’s behavior towards achieving success. Ahead of the interview, visualize yourself giving the interview.

3. Show up early

Being late for an interview is a sure no-no, everybody agrees. But showing up at least 10 minutes before the interview (be it online or offline) helps you calm your nerves and have a quiet moment before the interview starts. This time is often underrated but extremely essential: you are going to speak to your interviewer for at least 45 minutes in which time, you are required to sum up your entire career, expectation and goals. This brief time before the interview will help you gather your thoughts and structure your responses.

4. Write down your thoughts

A day or two before the interview, write down the thoughts that seem to be stressing you out. What are your concerns and worries? What aspect of the interview, the company or the role is causing you anxiety? Writing down these concerns will help you a great deal in coping with the uncertainties of a job interview. Of course, there are things beyond one’s control and how a job interview turns out is one of them. What you can control is how you deal with the situation.

5. Be prepared

Most importantly, be prepared. Anticipate questions, make a list of the common interview questions and those that are specific to your role or area of work. Practice your responses to these common questions so that you can focus your energy on answering in-depth questions.

Read more about best practices during an interview in this article: Get hired: Best practices during a job interview

6. Personal confidence boosters

This one could vary depending on what kind of a person you are and what techniques worked best for you in the past. What are your personal, go-to confidence boosters? Does a 5-minute deep breathing routine help you gather your thoughts? Do it! Does practicing your responses before a mirror make you feel more confident about yourself? Do it! Do you think confidence-boosting affirmations normally have a positive impact on you? Do it!

There is no better alternative than being well-prepared for the interview. We hope these techniques help you be better prepared to give a job interview.