Extreme anxiety before an interview

[FluffyPantaloons]

I suffer from extreme anxiety caused by a difficult time at a previous job and family problems all at the same time

I have an interview this week and I just don't know how to get through it. I'm having panic attacks and crying. I've tried talking to people but they dismiss it as normal interview nerves.

I know I can do the job well, it's just the idea of the interview which terrifies me

I understand how you are feeling. I suffer from anxiety too. I have recently had two interviews (well three as one was a second interview) and I felt physically sick before I had the first one because I knew it would be one of those where they ask you a load of questions asking for examples and I also had to sit a couple of tests. I had also not had an interview for 18 years.

I don't really have any words of wisdom other than prepare, prepare, prepare. I spent weeks researching the job role for the first interview, prepared answers and rehearsed them for questions I thought they might ask me (found a website that had specific interview questions for this particular job role). I was still scared to death on the day but I'd have been totally screwed had I not prepared because nearly all the questions I'd revised for they asked me.

I didn't get the job but I did find it good interview experience and I don't think I'd be as scared again.

I'm much better at less informal interviews where it's a nice chat with a few questions thrown in which is what my second interview was. I actually enjoyed it weirdly.

Good luck op, you can do it!

I don't think that I have prepared enough as I think I have been hiding my head. Now I feel like I am going in completely unprepared. I know the role and the place, but I can't count on myself not having a panic attack and wanting to flee

I interview people quite often

I see it as my job to get the best out of the candidate, because I want to find the best person for the job, not just who is the best at being interviewed.

So for example when I ask follow up questions, it is because I think the candidate has a bit more to tell me and I am trying to find out what that is

Would it help to think that rather than the interviewer being a threat, that they are trying to coach the best out of you?

Tyne thank you, that does help. I used to be relatively good at interviews, just the right amount of nerves. Then a bad job that destroyed my self belief seems to have triggered an extreme anxiety that makes me scared that as soon as I walk into the interview room I am just going to clam up and want to run