By Corey Schuler
There’s no getting around it – job interviews and anxiety pretty much go hand in hand. Are you wearing the best attire? What if you stumble on an answer? What if you stumble on EVERY answer? Oh no, is that one bit of hair STILL sticking up?? For some people, this anxiety is minimal, and for others, it can be super disruptive.
Adding to this, there’s that old saying to always show up 15 minutes early for your interview. We don’t disagree with this, but sometimes that 15 minutes can feel like hours as you’re waiting to get things going with your potential future employer.
However… you know what you bring to the table. You know your experiences and your skills and they deserve a chance to shine.
So how do we keep our confidence and our knowledge from getting trampled by anxiety? We think getting to your interview 15 minutes early is smart, but let’s make this more than punctuality.
Get where you need to be, and then slooooow down. Instead of ruminating over anticipated questions or talking points you want to bring up… you’ve done all that already. Rather, take several long, slow deep breaths. This is proven to slow your heart rate, which is a major contributor to anxiety. If the intrusive thoughts persist while you’re breathing, acknowledge them but remind yourself they are not the whole story.
And that’s really what you’re there to do, in the simplest terms. Share a part of your story. You can do that. So, in fact, you can ace this interview.
Mindfully approaching a crucial moment can have a big impact on the results. So yeah, get there early… but do so with the intention of slowing down beforehand, so you can go into that interview maybe still a bit anxious – and confident.
Learn more interview techniques at theascendcollective.org.