First job interview since 1997

[StaceyShipman]

So 9am tomorrow morning I have my first job interview since August 1997.

I have been a fulltime SAHM since November 1998 and until I went to college last September, in a bid to try and find some self esteem and confidence more than wanting actual qualifications, I did nothing outside the family really.

My course tutor gave me an application form for this job last month as he knew this is ultimately what I want to do.

By some miracle I have been called forward to a selection day - tomorrow. Its a day of role play, numeracy and literacy tests, presentations and a panel interview.

I am terrified. Infact I am so nervous I am shaking as I type this. I have been so out of the "corporate loop" for so long I feel so out of my depth. I am definately going to go because I so badly want this job, but believe me, I cannot recall a time in my life where I have felt so nervous.

I think I have prepared well. Done my research. My suit is ironed, shoes polished, sat nav programmed and dummy journey done this afternoon, all required paperwork ready and run through some interview type questions where I may be asked for examples etc but OMG OMG I am just so scared and feel out of my depth!!

I know no one here can do anyhthing to make my nerves dissapear but just wanted to get it off my chest a bit!

Good luck :)

I have worked part-time for many years and have had the odd informal interview over the years but had my first "proper" one for over 20 years last year. I got the job so there is hope!

Just be yourself and try not to stress too much.

Good Luck Stacey! Just remember that you wouldn't have got through to the selection day if they didn't think you could do the job. I had an assessment day and was incredibly nervous but once it got going I got really involved in what i was doing and it flew by and i even remember saying to the interviewer that i was enjoying myself! Also being prepared is absolutely key and you sound like you are, oh and they will actually want you to do well. Again, best of luck.

It sounds as though you've prepared well and keep focussing on the fact that your tutor would not have suggested it had he not thought you'd be able to do it.

It will be a long day with all those different activities. So one big challenge will probably be not to let how you think you've done at each stage affect your approach to the following one. Try not to dwell on a question you missed out or think you got wrong or something you think you should have said with hindsight in the role-play - just move on in your head and concentrate on what you're doing at that moment.

In the presentation, keep it simple: decide which few messages you want to convey to the audience and make sure you do it to time - they should specify how long you have to prepare and present.

And in your answers, draw on what you've been doing since you were last in paid employment as well as specific work-related stuff. For example, I bet there's not a lot anyone can teach you about organising a team's activity (=making sure that everyone in the family knows what they're doing each day, gets to the right places, has the right food and clothes for it, etc. etc.); or running a budget (=knowing what's coming in each month/week, planning menus, fuel for a car/public tranposrt fares, planning seasonal purchases, eg new shoes/coats/whatever); and, well, negotiating skills are best honed with your close family, who often have no stake at all in a successful outcome.

Make good eye contact, be honest (it will be obvious if you start off answering a question to which you don't really have an answer and that will put you off the rest), and try to treat it as a way of you finding out about the organisation to see if you really do want to work with them, not just them checking you out. Make sure you have a couple of good questions to ask them at the end of the panel interview (they should give you a chance to do it). It's absolutely fine to have these written down so you don't forget.

And, finally, even if you don't end up getting it, it's great to have got to this stage and it will be fantastic experience for the future.

Very best of luck. Do say tomorrow night how it went.