Interview Anxiety

[Meezer2]

Good morning MN'ers,

I have a job interview coming up for a band 7 in the NHS. Despite all the prep I will, I suffer with crippling anxiety at interviews. Any suggestions on how to ease this and perform well on the day?

Anyone?

Face to face or online?

It's really hard to calm interview nerves, but sounds like you are preparing as best you can.

Do you have a rough idea of what will be asked in the interview ? What I usually do is look at the job description and person specification and think of every conceivable question that could be derived from them and then thoroughly plan what I am going to say. Then I rehearse my perceived answers out loud (yes, basically talk to myself) until it feels really natural to say them.

Don't be too fearful of what you will be asked. Interviews aren't a trick - the employer is looking for someone who can do the job and who they think they can work with. If you feel incredibly nervous, then there's no harm in admitting it - the chance are, they will expect you to feel nervous and it shows that you are human.

It's better to harness it rather than trying to suppress it as that only makes it worse and then it spills over.

The nervous feelings are your body preparing you for a challenge. It's basically the same physiological experience as excitement. Thank your body for preparing you and embrace the excitement.

It can also be helpful to use limited hand gestures while you speak to support your points, as this also helps discharge any excess excitement. Don't be all waving your hands all over the place, but a bit of movement to naturally support what you're saying is effective at both discharging nerves and winning people over.

Practise talking in the mirror beforehand. Also helps you lose that self-conscious feeling.

If it's in person and they offer you a glass of water, accept. Then if you need a moment to compose yourself or thinking time before answering a question you can take a sip.

I've also been preparing for an interview, not with the NHS. I found chat gbt had some helpful ideas for questions that might be asked. I've also been listening to the audio book 'Why You?' But mainly I've been talking through and writing down examples of times I dealt with various challenging situations at work so they are fresh in my mind and I can reference them easily. Also, I recently did some personality tests at work that were really helpful for highlighting my strengths. One was Insights Discovery and the other was 16personalities. You should be find those for free online. Hopefully they will help me sell myself! When it comes to the anxiety, I know I will get that horrible feeling in my stomach, my heart will race and I will sweat no matter how cold it is but I think the only answer is to just get on with it. Sadly no magic fix as far as I know.

Pretend your a man.
Women tend to doubt themselves. Channel your inner ‘Dave’.

I think @Oatsamazing has some good tips. To add to these, I would say a) Understand what they are looking for (competency based) in the job description (e.g. tenacity or specific skills) and then b) come up with an example where you have demonstrated it in two or three sentences (then stop, don't ramble on) let them ask more if they want to. Write it down, re-read it. They will have a tick box, and they will probe for more if they need it, and won't if it is already ticked. They only have a certain amount of time to tick all of the boxes, and if they don't manage to do that in the time, then it is harder for them to say why you are perfect for the job. If you have the time, share your interview prep with a friend, preferably someone who has done interviews and do a dry run or several. I'm an experienced interviewer, and I took this seriously with my daughter who I sent back out of the room, or stopped the interview a few times before she said "come on mum, it is just me" but I said "tomorrow, it won't be just us" IRO of crippling anxiety, anyone who ever goes into any interview without some level of anxiety is very unusual, and they will take this into account, so really don't worry. If you are in front of a panel, feel like you need to address them all (it is very easy to get focused on just one person if you are nervous) if you can remember their names it helps. Finally, it is not the be all and end all, if you don't get it, it will be valuable experience. Good luck xx

Face to face Rogers.

Thank you paddy. Very helpful full advice

Thank you Attics, Like the rehearsing in the mirror idea

Happy to be Dave for the interview. 😂