Value Packed Guide on How to Deal With Job Interview Anxiety in 2024

Choosing one’s career is in itself a cumbersome task and once you are done with it, you are up for one more task full of anxiety and nervousness called INTERVIEW. Candidates having been received an Email or call inviting then for an interview, become nervous and conscious. The feeling of restlessness, nausea, sweating and in some cases hyperventilation are some of the common things that a candidate experiences while going for an interview. But, as we all know, too much fear from interview can lead to a loss of confidence and it is highly likely that your dream job’s interview might get ruined. Dealing with anxiety is an art, the better you hold your nerves, the better you are poised to perform.

7 Most Effective Ways To Stay Calm and Relaxed During Interviews

1) Take A Deep Breath

Want to decrease stress and feel relaxed and calm, take a deep breath. Deep breathing is one of the finest methods to lower stress in the body. When you breathe deeply, it transmits signals and messages to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain in turn, transmits this feeling of bliss or calmness to your whole body. Some common things that occur when your are stresses such as:

Increased heart rate
Fast breathing, and
High blood pressure

all starts to reach at an optimum level, upon taking deep breaths.

2) Do Remember Your Interviewer is not Your Enemy

Usually candidates going for an Interview, visualize their interviewer as some one, who will:

Embarrass them a lot
Will only ask questions that you have never even heard of
Tease you
Make you feel small

and things like that. But in reality, this is all in our own cruel mind and mostly candidates find an exact opposite. Interviewers are well aware of the fact, that an interviewee is nervous and they even allow you to be nervous. They mostly talk or behave in such a manner that will calm you down and soothe your nerves. As per a recent study, it has been observed, that in only 2% cases, a candidate loses his job, just because he/she was nervous. Rather, on the contrary, a candidate loses out his job because he/she was too relaxed or less prepared. So, a candidate going into an interview should deem his interviewer to be his friend rather than a foe.

3. Pre-Meditate The Questions To Be Confronted

It is wise to predict what questions an interviewer is going to ask, which would largely depend on the job profile. Once you are done with the assumption, prepare for them from different sources. This will not only boost your confidence level but also give you a feeling of calmness and gift you a relaxed state of mind. It is seen that the candidates who are under prepared, are the ones, with shaky hands and trembling legs. So, prepare well for the interview and you are bound to succeed.

4. Do not Eat Foods or Take Drinks With High Calorie Count

A balanced diet comprising proper nutrition and other essentials is vital while preparing or going to attend a meeting or interview. A diet lacking balance between carbohydrates and proteins can make you feel tired or sloppy, whereas a healthy diet will:

Increase your concentration levels
Make you more focused
Increase your level of awareness
Increase your presence of mind(most crucial)

Best Foods To Have Before going For An Interview

Name of foods	Reason
Boiled Eggs or Fish	Packed with rich and essential amino acids, leading to increased focus.
Coffee	Helps you to stay alert.
Almonds	For good memory.
Green leafy vegetables	For less panic attacks and stress.

Worst Foods To have Before Going For An Interview

Name of foods	Reason
Foods that are oily and have high calorie count	Makes a person feel dizzy
Sugar rich foods and drinks, such as Sweets and Carbonated drinks	Makes you lose your focus and leads to formation of excessive gas in your stomach, causing uneasiness and discomfort
Onions	They can cause bad breath

5. Feed Your Brain Regularly With Positive Mantras or Sayings

We are all aware of the power of our mind, but unfortunately, only a handful of people have used it to their own advantage. In most of the people, this power is unrealized and goes to trash for a toss.

Feeding your mind regularly with positive thoughts and confidence boosting mantras, aids you to see towards the bright side of life and eventually you feel calm and relaxed. Thinking positively before an interview helps you to reaffirm your self-belief. Negative thoughts about your own ability, will not only increase mental pressure but will also lead to restlessness and bizarre behaviors.

6. Visualization

Visualization is a technique wherein a person, imagines or simulates reality in his mind. This technique is mostly used by sports persons and athletes wherein they create visions of playing their game. Effective visualization, depends largely on past experiences and practice. While going for an interview, an interviewee can visualise in the following sequence:

Step 1: Take a few deep breaths, which will make you feel relaxed.
Step 2: Imagine that you are sitting in your favorite chair.
Step 3: Imagine a whole team of 5-6 interviewers in front of you.
Step 4: Imagine that you are sitting in front of them like a confident candidate.
Step 5: Imagine that you are giving crisp, to the point and brief answers to their every question.
Step 6: Imagine that you are being asked questions, which you have prepared for.
Step 7: Last but not the least, Imagine that you have grabbed a seat in your most coveted company with flying colors.

Performing all the above mentioned steps will take you mostly 20-30 minutes. An effective visualization will completely de-stress you and will give you a feeling of euphoria, bliss and high confidence.

7. Remember That You Are Not The First One

Candidates give interviews all the year, be it to get their first job or to make a change, in pursuit of a salary hike or better growth opportunities. One must always remember that, one is not the first person in the world who is going for an interview. Rather, there have been thousands of men and women who have got themselves interviewed. The candidates who were worthy of getting the job, got the job, and who were not, tried their luck next time.

Thinking in this way, will make you feel that you are not alone, rather you are joining a team or a group of large no. of interviewees who have experienced the same levels of anxiety and restlessness as you are experiencing now. All the present Chief Executive Officers or Managing Directors or Chief Compliance Officers, were once a rookie and joined their respective organisations overcoming their fear and anxiety and have reached summits.

Conclusion

Getting nervous before going for an interview is absolutely a normal human behaviour but not controlling your emotions and rather getting overwhelmed, is not normal. One must thrive to reduce his levels of anxiety and worry, by focusing on bright things of life and a few simple techniques as mentioned above. If you liked our article, do share it with your friends and families. Do let us know, how this article helped you in acing your interview, in the comments section.

References

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Sandeep Bhandari

Sandeep Bhandari is the founder of PrepMyCareer.com website.

I am a full-time professional blogger, a digital marketer, and a trainer. I love anything related to the Web, and I try to learn new technologies every day.

All the team management, content creation, and monetization tasks are handled by me. Together with the team at PrepMyCareer, the aim is to provide useful and engaging content to our readers.

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