Transcription of how to be less nervous in a job interview
In this video, I’m going to teach you how to become less nervous in the interviews.
Now, before we can do this, we need to find out why you’re nervous. What is it about the interview that’s making you nervous? If you just say, “Interviews make me nervous”, then you need to start asking yourself some questions. And this is what I do with people when I work with them on the phone. I try to dig deep into this and find out the root of their nervousness.
Now for some people, they are just afraid that the interviewer is going to ask them a question that they don’t know how to answer. And I suppose that might make you nervous because if they ask you a lot of questions and you don’t know how to answer any of them, you’re probably not going to get the job.
So, what you want to do is find out what it is about you that makes you nervous. Is it a lack of experience? I mean, let’s say you’re interviewing for a job and you don’t really have the experience for it and you’re afraid they’re going to ask you questions that reveal that you don’t have the experience. If that’s the case, then you need to educate yourself in that area that you’re interviewing for so that you’re more familiar with some of the terminology that they might be using in this interview and that you would be using on this job if they hired you.
So, some people are just nervous because they might not get the job and they need it. They need the money. They need it to make a house payment, a car payment or just to live; whatever it is. So, just the very essence of their own insecurities about interviewing has them just scared to death and they’re really nervous.
So, you need to find out what it is about you. Is it just the questions that they’re going to ask and that you’re not going to be able to answer them correctly or is it just plain old fear that they’re not going to be impressed with you? So, find out what it is. And when you know what the fear is, then you can do something about it.
Most people are afraid of questions. Most people are just terrified of answering the questions the wrong way that they’re going to get asked the question that they don’t know how to answer or that they’re going to get asked a question and they’re nervous that they won’t be able to stop talking. Some people just love to talk and talk and they talk themselves into circles when they’re answering questions and they end up giving the interviewer just way more information than they need.
One of the best ways to reduce your nerves before the interview is get yourself a video camera and if you don’t have a video camera, use your phone. But whatever you do, get it out there, get it in front of you and look at it and pretend you’re in the interview. Tell you what, better yet, do this. Go out and get yourself a picture of some business people in suits. I’m sure you can find an image. Go to Google images, find yourself a picture of people in business suits and print it out and put it in front or at the back of your video camera and use that picture and pretend that that is a panel of interviewers that you are talking to. And then, pretend that they’re asking you questions and then you answer them. Answer them the way that you want to answer them. And then what you do is you go back and you watch that video and you see how long it takes.
Now, if it’s taking you three or five or ten minutes to answer the questions, that’s far too long. So, get yourself a list of some common interview questions. I actually have a whole list. You can go to jobinterviewtools.com/top10 and you can download my top 10 list of questions and use these. And understand how to answer these questions.
So, now you’ve got the questions, you’ve got the video camera. Now, get in front of the camera and start answering those questions. And then, watch that video and see how you did; see how long it took you. It should take you maybe 30 to 60 seconds to answer those questions.
Get comfortable doing this. Do this over and over and over again until you can just sit back and comfortably answer any of those questions while you’re looking at your camera and while you’re looking at a picture of some business people in suits. This is going to help calm your nerves. It’s going to increase your confidence because you’re going to teach yourself that you are comfortable answering these questions and that you are answering them the right way.
So, make sure when you answer them that they’re about 30 to 60 seconds long. And when you listen back to what you said, try to take note of all the “umms” and the “ahhs” and the pauses that you put into your answer and try to take those out in your next take and shoot that video again. Answer that question again and try to do it cleaner. And you just keep doing this over and over and you refine your answering technique.
And when you have a refined answering technique and you go into an interview, you’re going to be so much more comfortable and confident and you’re going to be able to answer their questions. Sure, you’re probably going to be a little bit nervous. Obviously, that that goes with the territory. That’s our brain’s way of protecting us; believe it or not. Your brain is making you be a little bit nervous because it’s pushing you to get prepared for the interview.
So, get prepared, practice common interview questions. And like I said, go to my site; jobinterviewtools.com/top10. I’ll put a link in the video description. You can go grab that guide and that’s going to teach you how to answer some of the more common interview questions.
Another great way that you can use to calm your nerves–this technique works great–pretend that it’s not an interview; just get that out of your mind. Think about it as an opportunity to teach someone what you’re good at doing.
So, I can pretty much guarantee that if you and I were to sit down and have a conversation and you were going to show me something that you know how to do, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be nervous. So, remove the whole job interview element from it. Look at it as an opportunity to teach someone something.
So, when you go into the interview and they ask you questions about your experience, just look at look at it as a way of educating them on what you know. Say, “Oh, yes. I’ve worked on certain things like that. Here’s some of the projects that I’ve worked on. Here’s how I did it”. And then what you do is you ask them questions back. Ask them questions, “Have you guys ever had problems like this?” or “Have you ever worked on projects like this?”
Engage them in your answer and when you start engaging them and asking them questions while they’re asking you questions, this brings everybody into the conversation. And you know what happened to your nerves, you forget about them; they’re gone. They’re out of the window.
So, think about an interview as an opportunity to teach someone about what you are good at doing. I guarantee it. I guarantee you will not be nervous if you take that approach to it.
And lastly, don’t shoot yourself in the foot. If you think that you need to get this job that; you must get this job and you put this enormous pressure on yourself before the interview that, “You know what? We have to get this job. No matter what, don’t screw it up”. You know, you’re talking to yourself, “Don’t screw this up. Go in there and get the job”. If you put that kind of pressure on yourself, you’re probably dead before you even started. You’re not going to be able to handle your own internal pressure, let alone the pressure that you’re going to get from the interviewers.
So, I urge you; don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself. Look at this job objectively; go in and share with them what you can do.
And make them sell this position to you. Ask them questions like, “What is it like to work here? What can I expect to be doing?” Make them answer some of your questions. Make them try to tell you that you’re going to like it here. And what that’s going to do that’s going to create a nice balanced conversation between both of you. It’s going to relieve all the pressure that you’re feeling and you’re going to go in there and you’re going to objectively be yourself. You’re going to objectively interview and you’re just going to be the real you and that’s what they want to see.
When you let all this fear and nervousness inside of you, they can’t see the real you anymore because all that fear puts up a barrier and it’s like it shields you from them. So, all they can see is this barrier and they don’t really know the real you. And that’s why people who just go in and are just so crazy nervous in the interview, never get the job because the interviewer can’t see who they really are.
So, when you’re in there, relax yourself; smile. If you smile in the interview, just smiling is going to release so much tension that you’re feeling. It’s going to put you at ease. It’s going to make you feel like you can sit back in the interview, cross your feet, put your hands on the desk and talk comfortably and confidently. Trust me on this; this is how you do it. This is going to cut your nerves.
So, to recap. Go to jobinterviewtools.com/top10, get a list of questions. Get my free list of questions, practice them in front of a camera. And review your answers, improve them, make them better and pretend when you’re in the interview that you were teaching them about what you are good at doing. And I guarantee all of your nerves will just go out of the window. Trust me on this.
