Struggling to prepare for interview - I'd even rather do the ironing!!! HELP!

[tillykins]

Help
I have a lot to learn for an interview on wednesday and I am struggling to apply myself to it - I keep procrastinating, its so difficult!
I don't understand it, it would be brilliant to get this job but I just feel so negative and miserable. Its like I've been told I haven't got it before I even have the interview
Any tips to motivate myself?

No tips really but I'm going through the same thing. Have an interview on Wednesday and would love the job but I will have to answer a lot of legal questions based on work I last did 10 years ago! I sort of know it but obviously I'm a bit rusty! (have done other things in the interim but not this particular area). I would love it but feel really negative about my prospects - really want and need to get a job but feel so brain dead at the moment and unable to think on my feet I think it's really unlikely I'll get it. I have done some work for it but need to do loads more and it's making me really miserable too.
Could you try to analyse just what you're finding difficult? Is it the subject matter, or the volume of it,or the fact that you can't remember it? (Like me!)I know I feel overwhelmed too because I'm simultaneously having to fill in a b*** of an application form that has to be in on Thursday and we're going away next w/e and my mum's coming to stay on Tuesday
So - no real advice but lots of sympathy.Do as much as you can and you might surprise yourself.I had an interview in September I ended up not going to because I felt so crap about it so my personal goal is to attend the interview whatever the outcome.

I think that it is important not to overprepare. Read the JD and additional info, and get a good idea of what they are looking for. Make sure you are secure on the basics. Make sure you get plenty of sleep and try not to be too stressed . Some nervousness is fine at an interview, but if you can try and stay as relaxed as possible you are more likely to perform well. Remember that everyone else is probably nervous too. Finally if you have got to the interview it should mean they have already decided you can do the job. If not it may be that the field was poor. Either way you should have as good a chance as anyone else. Good luck!

thanks nooka - thats so sensible, I shall keep chanting it to myself all day Wednesday!
Hi Littleshebear - think its the volume and remembering it. My organisation is very competencies based in interview, and I am fretting about making my examples of performance relate to the competencies
AARGH
What time is your interview?
Mine is to arrive at 3pm to "prepare" for presentation exercise and interview at 4...
What a rubbish time! They will just want to go home

tillykins, don't think of it like that! Think that they will have had several terrible candidates and will be feeling so depressed, and then you will walk in and blow them away... It can happen like that. I have done quite a few interviews (on the other side of the table as it were) and sometimes you are really flagging and losing hope, and then someone walks in and fits the bill. In fact it can be a positive disadvantage to be interviewed early, as by the end of the day the interviewers may have forgotten you (of course they can forget the bad bits as well as the good...). I am (can you tell!) a great believer in thinking positive, if you think not so much "I am going to get this job", but "I am going to be the best I can be" I do believe it helps. Wear clothes that make you feel confident and professional (whatever fits your industry) and go for it! After all you have nothing to lose. If you don't get it it's not the end of the world, and maybe it wasn't the right thing for you. I always try to think - do I want to work with you? as well as do you want me to work for you. Sometimes you walk out of an interview thinking "no way"! Good luck.

Hey good luck! Trust me, I've interviewed more people than I care to remember and a little nervousnous is infinitely preferable to arrogance. Ok, so your organisation likes competencies but it doesn't mean you can only use work examples. The best interviewees are those who can demonstrate a relevant example, what action they took and why, what the outcome was, and what they learned from the experience If they are looking for project management or dealing with difficult people, if you don't have a work example, telling them about being a school governor or the play school outing you organised is better than saying nothing. Being a mother is nothing if not challenging - you have to be resilient, creative, strong-willed, adaptable...you've got loads to offer. Don't sell yourself short! Relax and try to enjoy the interview - as others say, it is an opportunity for you to decide if you actually want to work for them. And most of all, be yourself!

My interview is at 9.45 - which I'm actually quite pleased about. Calmed down a bit now - have just started to do a little more preparation. Very helpful words,Nooka, thanks. I will just do my best with the limited brain power available! Best of luck Tillykins if I don't make it on here again before Wednesday.