How to Overcome your Fear of Interviewing

The fear of interviewing is so great for some people that they stay at their current job forever because it is safe and free from failure. If this sounds like you, don’t worry, there is a way to get past this fear. This post is going to cover some techniques you can use to nail your next interview.

This article is dedicated to the students and job seekers who are afraid to leave their comfort zone to get what they want. If this is you, know that you are more capable than you think you are and you have a lot to offer to any company you apply to. Use the techniques listed in this post to motivate you to build your skills and get over your fears.

You Must Believe that You are Capable of Greatness

“To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are.” --Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest champions of all time. There are few that would question his abilities. He was also an incredibly gifted public speaker, who inspired many people around the world. He took on challenges with confidence, believing fully in his ability to come out victorious.

Going into an interview is nothing compared to stepping into the ring for a title fight, but for some candidates, an interview elicits the similar fears. If this is you, we can learn from Muhammad Ali, and believe that we have what it takes to succeed.

There was a point in time where interviews scared me to death. Through my life I have had some incredible interviews, as well as some that did not go the way I wanted. The following 3 techniques are strategies I have learned along the way that have helped me improve my interview skills and remove that fear.

1. Use Affirmations to Become the Person You Want to Be

If you are unsure what affirmations are, check out this article in Forbes about how affirmations can change your life.

Affirmations are a roadmap for the person that you want to be. These affirmations can unfortunately be negative and manifest themselves in ways that self-fulfilling. For example:

“I’ve never been good at interviews.”

“I can never think of the right thing to say.”

“I’m a terrible public speaker.”

These are things you should catch yourself saying, and actively correct them as much as possible. We can use positive affirmations to change personal beliefs we have about ourselves and our abilities.

The next time you find yourself nervous for an interview, go to a mirror and look yourself in the eyes while saying some of the following:

“I have a lot to offer to [COMPANY I AM APPLYING FOR]”

“I am an excellent team player. I understand how to work well with others.”

“I am amazing at talking to people. Especially people I don’t know.”

“I am an incredible problem solver. I bring so much value to everything I put my mind to.”

When you say these things, you have to resist the urge to think, “None of this is true.” It will be difficult, but you need to believe that you are already the person that you want to be. There is no magic year or steppingstone where everything just ‘clicks’ and you become the person of your dreams.

To be the person you want to be, you must continue to work on yourself and believe that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. When you continue to practice these affirmations, you will start to see the changes occur as you put positive thoughts into your mind and actions.

2. Research, Study, and Prepare

If you have a few days to prepare for the interview you are nervous for, try this exercise.

Make a list of anything that could go wrong during the interview that you would consider to be a failure. Take each item on the list and decide what you can do right now to prevent that from happening.

What you will likely see is that many of these fears can be solved with preparation. If one of your fears is about whether they ask you about your weaknesses, you should have an answer prepared for that question. This way you will not need to try to think of something on the spot.

You should study everything you can about the company. What are their core values? What types of products to they sell? Who are their customers? What new and exciting things are they working on?

If you go into the interview having the answers to these questions, you will always have something to talk about and use in your answers to your questions.

You should also study everything that is on your resumé. You may get questions about a specific point that you have listed. You should brush up on your past work experience so you can talk about any detail on your resumé.

The goal with this exercise is to eliminate as much of the ‘unknown’ as possible as you walk through the front doors of the company for your interview. You want to have as much prepared as possible to reduce the fear you have of failure.

3. Practice Answering Common Interview Questions

If you played sports, you understand the ramifications of not practicing before a game. This is the same idea of not studying before a test. So why would you not practice before an interview?

Practicing for an interview can be challenging. If you are practicing by yourself, print off some common interview questions form the internet. Ask yourself the questions and then imagine that you are in your interview and answer the questions.

A better form of practice is to enlist the help of a friend. Give them that list of questions and have them ask you the questions. Answer them as if you were in the interview.

Continue to practice these questions until you feel comfortable answering them. You don’t want your answers to feel memorized or rehearsed when you are in your interview, but you want to be able to have some talking points to discuss when you are asked a similar question.

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