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Job Interview Anxiety

You're in the waiting room -- waiting. You've sold yourself on paper. Now you must show the interviewer that you do indeed live up to the image presented in your resume.

Job applicants who have survived the experience will tell you that they were scared, nervous, exhausted; they had butterflies in their stomach, sweaty palms, and a pounding heart; they were chicken to go through that door.

We all get anxious from time to time. Interview anxiety is an example of the primitive fight or flight response. What was adaptive 60,000 years ago when we confronted threats to life on a daily basis has become somewhat maladaptive to twenty-first century civilized life. For most of us there's no one to fight and fleeing isn't much of an option. The interview handshake is a perfect example. Do you know the reference here ("Shaking hands with him was like shaking hands with a fish -- cold and clammy."? In the stress reaction certain bodily functions get activated while others get deactivated. For example, blood flows away from peripheral areas such as hands to major muscle groups like the legs, arms and jaw area. Hence, your hands become cold. At the same time other bodily functions increase, like perspiration. The result: cold, clammy hands. Even more problematic is the research indicating that the ability to concentrate and problem solve diminishes during the alarm stage of the stress reaction. Well, you already knew this if you've ever gone blank on an exam.

We dread the job interview because it feels like an interrogation. At the same time, we are divulging personal information about ourselves to a complete stranger who has the power to furnish or withhold what we are seeking. This is not a healthy way to think about the encounter. Let me suggest an alternative. The job interview is a business communication between two parties each trying to determine whether they want to invest in one another. Each party has to make a hiring decision; the employer must decide whether to hire and the applicant must decide whether to accept an offer of employment. Both parties have something at stake; a poor decision can hurt either party.

BUILD CONFIDENCE

There are several ways of thinking about the interview and several techniques you can apply to minimize anxiety and keep your confidence high.

YOU'RE NOT AN IMPOSTOR

Have you heard about the impostor syndrome. It happens to students when they've been accepted to a particular college or university. They figure there must have been a screw-up. Their acceptance was a mistake, a clerical error. They spend the first semester waiting to get caught. Job seekers sometimes have a similar experience. But listen -- you're not an impostor. You deserve to be there.

A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Here's something to keep in mind: you wouldn't be at the interview if the interviewer thought you couldn't do the job. Based on your resume, they figure you can do the job. Although they want to confirm the validity of that assessment at the job interview, they are on your side.

BE PREPARED

The best antidote for interview stress is preparedness: know what you want to say about yourself; practice it.

ACCEPT ANXIETY

Accept your anxiety as perfectly natural. The interviewer expects you to be nervous. Indeed, you should feel a bit nervous. After all, you are about to promote a valuable product -- yourself.

POUNDING HEART

If your heart is pounding so loud that you can't hear what is going on around you, try taking several deep breaths, letting the air out slowly. But don't work too hard at covering up your nervousness; you may only make it worse.

FOCUS OF STRENGTHS

Much interview anxiety stems from being preoccupied with your weaknesses rather than with your strengths. Remember, you would not be at the interview if you didn't have something to offer. Your resume has already done much of the job of selling you. Your presence at the interview is the result of a decision that the firm's interests might be served by hiring you. The meeting has been arranged to amplify the material contained in your resume and to inform you in more detail of the various facets of the job in question.

CONCENTRATE ON THE TASK AT HAND

The best thing you can do is to approach the interview as a job to be accomplished rather than a trial-by-fire ordeal. Try to divorce the significance of the interview -- what is at stake -- from the interview itself. Athletics do this all the time. "I'm not competing for the Wimbledon Championship," tennis great Fred Perry used to say "I'm just going out to play a game of tennis." Apply the same principle to a job interview. Concentrate on the interview itself.

BE REALISTIC

Have a realistic perspective of the job interview process. It is not an assessment of personal worth. Rather, it is an assessment of how well your qualifications meet the specific demands of the job, in comparison to those of other applicants. If you don't get the job it's not a major calamity. Remember, the firm that turned you down is only one of a number of potential employers in the same field. Already, you should be thinking about the next interview.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

Don't become discouraged. Whenever you fail to get a job offer you should assume that someone else had either better qualifications or had better interview skills. To be unsuccessful in a job competition is not a sign of personal inadequacy. Remember, most people go through several interviews bef