Interview Fear – How Handle Interview Fear Effectively?

Interview Fear – As you are reading this post, I am sure either you are facing interview fear or you might have faced the same.

Be it a job interview or a marriage interview, everyone goes through interview fear in their life. 

To address your interview fear, today I’m going to share with you some important tips on, exactly, how to be more confident in interviews without coming across, being arrogant.

In fact, I’m going to share with you four fears that you have during an interview and exactly what you could do to reduce or eliminate that fear.

Interview Fear – How Handle Interview Fear Effectively?

Remember – Fear is not real. You see, we cannot be more confident if we don’t know what is causing us to feel nervous and fearful.

And there are four fears that you experience during an interview.

#1 Embarrassment of personal appearance 

Let’s face it, most of us, don’t like how we look and how we sound, maybe we don’t like our weight, we don’t like our body shape, we don’t like how we talk, or we don’t like our facial expressions.

We don’t like, whatever we don’t like, about ourselves, right?

There are certain things that we don’t feel confident about. And there may be certain things about ourselves, our appearance, that we feel very confident about.

Sometimes this is a story that we have in our minds. Oh, what if the interviewer, the employer, doesn’t like this, doesn’t like that about me, or what about this? And we try to hide the fact that, that is part of who we are.

So, what can we do? I always say, when you look good, you feel good, when you feel good, you perform better, right?

So dress to impress. I suggest whatever position that you’re applying for, you dress just one level up. 

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Go get the haircut. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing that interview through Zoom.

Imagine you’re doing it in person, right? Put on that cologne, and dress properly. Don’t do that where, Oh, you’re dressed in a suit and there’s, actually, like sweat pants below. No, because affects your performance.

When you take it seriously, when you give your 100%, you project your confidence, even though the camera, even through your webcam, on Zoom, as well.

If it’s in person, of course, right? Shine your shoes, make sure the hygiene, personal hygiene, all of that. So then, you’re confident you’re walking in, You’re going to ace that interview. 

That’s my first recommendation.

#2 Fear of saying the wrong things

Fear of saying the wrong things during the interview. The employer asking you questions, you’re like, you’re stumbling, you don’t know what to say and you’re like, oh my god, I shouldn’t have said that.

I should have said something else. You’ll regret it, right?

So how do you solve this? The best way to solve this and I am shocked why most people don’t do it. You actually, rehearse, because guess what?

Most of the questions are the same. Most of them, ask the same questions and again, again. You know what those questions are going to be, be prepared. 

So, rehearse with a friend with a family member, and have them ask you those questions multiple times, right?

From a different angle. It could be the beginning, during, and after the interview.

Just do that. What you want to do is you want to rehearse so many times, so you don’t need to think about it.

Doesn’t matter what question they give you. You already rehearsed that so many times, you can just deliver, naturally, right?

What about this, what about that? You already know the answer.

So you’re not trying to search, oh, maybe I should say this, oh, I shouldn’t say that maybe I should say more of that.

No, you already know, it’s almost having a little script. There’s nothing wrong with scripting this out. But then wouldn’t I sound unnatural?

Well, guess what? When you’re stumbling upon sentences, when you freeze, when you don’t know what to do when you look awkward, now, that’s unnatural, right?

Being natural doesn’t mean you don’t prepare, just like a performer, they perform on stage.

A speaker, they speak, doesn’t mean they don’t rehearse. They give their 100%, that naturalness comes from emotions.

To deliver, but prepare, and rehearse multiple times, especially before an important interview.

#3 Fear of Rejection 

Fear of rejection or fear of not getting the job is another one. You think in your mind that you lose that opportunity.

So, what could you do to boost that confidence? Before you’re going for that interview give yourself a little bit of time, close your eyes, and visualize, yourself going in there or joining Zoom, that people are smiling at you.

Imagine success because positive expectation leads to a positive outcome.

Imagine if you are thinking, oh my god, what if I don’t get that job?

Oh my god, what if they don’t like me? Oh my goodness, what if I never get this opportunity again? Oh, I don’t want to say stupid.

Oh, I’m going to say something stupid. All this negativity doesn’t help with your performance.

Instead, you visualize success. It’s almost like before you go into the interview, it’s a done deal.

Now, not coming across cocky and arrogant. I’m talking about, you know, you’ve got this, right? This is it.

You’ve seen it many, many times in your mind, the outcome and the success that you want. So visualize success just before the interview.

#4 What other People Think

Another fear is what other people think of me. As human beings, we are very, very concerned, about most people, what other people think of us, it’s normal.

So how do you reduce this fear? I believe one of the best pieces of advice that I could give you, is to walk away power.

You want to have walk-away power. Let’s say you have this job that you really want, but you don’t want that to be the only job that you’re applying for.

You want to have multiple jobs lined up. You want to have multiple opportunities. You want to have multiple interviews, even though those are not the ones you want.

But because this is the one you want, this is your dream job because of exactly that, you don’t want a little bit of neediness or you don’t want to sound like you’re desperate, at all.

– You must be truly desperate to come to me for help.

– You’ve got multiple things lined up just in case, knock on wood, that doesn’t work.

You got a fallback plan, you’ve got a plan B. But if this is everything you’ve got, it’s very difficult not to get nervous.

It’s very difficult not to be fearful because there’s too much on the line.

But when you know, you know what, I’ve got an interview at 1 PM, and I’ve got another interview at 2:30 PM, I’ve got another interview tomorrow. I’ve got multiple interviews lined up.

You know what, if I screw this up and I don’t want to, that is fine.

That confidence shows through. It shows through when you are answering those questions because you’re calm, right?

Then you can be yourself and nothing’s more powerful than being yourself, being authentic. And you do that.

And the interviewer, the employer, would sense that and will feel your emotions. 

So those are the four fears and methods to handle in the interview. 

I am sure you must have experienced fear while facing an interview. I suggest you share your experience with me at sk@moneyexcel.com.