My Tips for Overcoming Interview Anxiety

I’m going to go a bit rogue here, guys.  This may not be an applicable topic to everyone, but if it is, I think I know a thing or two about this so I’m going to share my wisdom!  Whether you suffer from a generalized anxiety disorder or not, anxiety before a job interview is pretty common for everyone. What’s to be calm about?  You are grilled about your personality and experience for hours upon hours, only to leave wondering if you will be the chosen one. It’s exhausting.

My Tips for Overcoming Interview Anxiety

I’m in between jobs right now—that’s actually how this little blog came to be! Hashtag everything happens for a reason. I’m a career-oriented person. To me a job is not just a job, but rather a chance for me to learn and grow.  Basically, I drink the Kool Aid in whatever I do. My career has been in sales and sales management, starting in LA in the fashion industry and most recently in digital media.  Here’s where I’m a true (albeit older) millennial: If I’m unhappy in what I’m doing, I cannot mask it. I can try, but brutal honesty is both a positive trait of mine and also the bane of my existence.

As someone with anxiety, if I’m experiencing unhealthy stress for an extended period, all of my alarm bells go off. Meaning, my body wastes no time in letting me know something is not f*cking right. Trust me, I will ignore it for some time because I am an eternal optimist and hopeful things will change course, but sometimes the alarms get too loud to ignore, and sometimes things don’t change course. It’s a blessing and a curse because change is scary, but severe anxiety is way scarier.

Insert job change and interviewing.  I’ve been in both the hot seat and the interviewer seat.  In my previous role, I was hiring for my own sales team and therefore interviewed people on the regular.  It has totally made me better at being in the hot seat myself. So, although interviewing causes general anxiousness for most people, it’s actually a situation that is comfortable for me. Anxiety is weird, man.

My Tips for Crushing an Interview

Write Your Career Story

When I start to interview for new jobs, I will review my resume and on a separate piece of paper write out a summary of each of my positions from the very beginning.  It helps me refresh my memory on what I’ve learned and accomplished, but more importantly it helps me the connect the dots from role to role. The interviewer is going to want to know why you changed jobs, so I come to the table prepared to tell a linear summary of my career. This refresher of accomplishments also helps me fine-tune my strengths so I can effectively communicate just what it is that I bring to the table, and also what I’ve learned from my failures.

The second exercise I do is write down what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy in each role.  Knowing these things has not only helped me narrow down what jobs to look for, but it also helps me ask the right questions in an interview.  The interviewer at some point will ask why you are interested in their company. It’s important to know the answer to why I’m there based on past experience and also what I’m looking to get out of my next role.

Let Your Personality Shine

I’m always 100% authentically myself (minus the curse words) in interviews.  Not only does this help boost my confidence, but honestly if I pretend to be someone else and get hired for that fakie (not a word), it’s not going to work out well in the end anyway. Also, I want to know if I’m going to jive with these people on the day-to-day.  If the interviewer is someone I will be working closely with and they give off bad vibes, then it’s a big ole thank you, next for me.

Know Your Worth

You are interviewing the company just as much as they are interviewing you. You spend a shit ton of a time at work.  If you take a job that you aren’t 100% sold on and end up being unhappy, you have to repeat the process all over again.  Annoying. Also, you are a badass and they are lucky to have you. Remember that.

My resume isn’t linear, meaning that I’ve had similar jobs, but they’ve been across different industries.  I’m confident with that and know exactly how that makes me a strong candidate, but not every employer is going to be obsessed with that.  And you know what, that’s ok! I’ve learned to recognize that if they don’t find my resume appealing, it’s a company culture I wouldn’t excel in anyway.

Often times, I will be asked my compensation requirements right off the bat in the initial phone screen.  Prior to that call, I research the industry, compare my years of experience, and come prepared to share my compensation range. Do not dismiss your value.  It’s much easier to negotiate compensation when you first start a job than negotiating a raise while you’re in it.

(Forced) Self Awareness

Having trouble figuring out what the hell direction you want to go in?  I can relate! One of the best things I did for myself was about ten years ago when I read the book What Color is Your Parachute.  The author releases a new edition every year ensuring it’s relevant to the current job market, and it’s packed full of exercises to help you figure out just what it is you want to do.  It takes some dedication, but all exercises are connected so when you are finished you have this fancy diagram called “The Flower,” that basically summarizes in one page who you are and what you want to do.  I still have mine from ten years ago!

What’s also helpful is the Myers-Brigg Personality Test.  Some companies will even have you take some form of this prior to any conversations.  This website provides a free quiz and if you haven’t taken it in awhile, I’d recommend taking it again.  You grow and change so your Myers-Brigg could change as well. Refer to it prior to an interview. I have a “CONSUL” personality or “ESFJ.” This means that I enjoy being social, supporting loved ones, and in general making sure everyone is happy. Check, check, and check. On this website, there’s an entire section discussing how your personality type interacts in the workplace as well.  My personality type, for example, enjoys teamwork and people management through social intelligence and expectation setting. Handy little piece of information to take with me to an interview.

Just because my anxiety isn’t high during an interview, doesn’t mean I don’t get nervous.

I’m human after all. Preparation is the best thing I can do to leave the interview knowing that I did my best.  Doing my best is all I can hope for, because at the end of the day whether I get the job or not isn’t in my control. As a (semi) recovering control freak, this was a tough one for me to swallow. I’ve learned that if I did the best I could and I don’t get the job I wanted, it wasn’t meant to be.  Plain and simple.

I may not understand why at the current time, but I’ve always looked back and thanked my lucky stars that I didn’t get that job. That’s literally the most annoying advice of all time while you’re in the middle of it, but that’s ok, you can be mad at me now (but, like, don’t send me mean messages)...and will hopefully thank me later.