How to control your nerves for a job interview: 5 tips

Job interviews are often stressful situations by their very nature.

In most cases, as job candidates, we don't go to them simply to feel the terrain and get information from a company that It is interesting to us, but even before it begins we already think about the possible alternative futures that await us in case of being accepted. In other words, they are contexts that we perceive as if each of them could radically change the course of our lives.

However… How to control your nerves in a job interview? Although we cannot completely control our levels of anxiety and stress, it is possible to influence them indirectly to make them decrease.

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Nerves in a job interview: what to do and how to control them

The expectations that we create before job interviews make our nervous system go into state of alert when the moment approaches to enter the office in which the selectors will value. Unconsciously, we try to be aware of everything that is happening around us to maximize our chances of success.

It is clear that a certain level of nervousness is positive, because it leads us to think about something that is important to us. us and, in this way, it makes it more possible that we do not leave anything in the pipeline when it comes to planning how we approach that question. However, if the level of stress and anxiety is very high, it is also more likely that we get stuck trying to respond to many things at once. EITHER that, in general, we give the image of not being prepared to face a challenge.

The latter is especially relevant in the case of job interviews, since in them the superficial and more “automatic” evaluation of people counts a lot as a mechanism for discarding candidates. The idea that if we appear too weak and imperfect when interviewed by the resource selectors Humans, in turn, makes us feel more nervous, so that we feel the perfect breeding ground for the appearance of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Believing that we can be too anxious causes anxiety levels to rise.

For this reason, fighting nerves in a job interview is a challenge, since we are not only faced with the need to present our candidacy in the most appetizing way possible, but also we must try not to involve our emotions too much... which is somewhat more difficult if we do not have many job offers among which choose. Having said this, and taking into account that each case is unique, let's see what they are the strategies we can adopt to cushion the effects of stress.

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1. Sleep well

Although it seems counterintuitive, not getting enough sleep makes us more likely to feel nervous and restless before situations in which we notice that we are not in control. Yes, for most of the day we are sleepy and everything in us seems to work more slowly, but when situations arise that demand a lot from us, we feel less prepared to face them. As a result, our entire nervous system invests more energy in staying alert in general, even if that leads us to be more imprecise in each of the specific tasks to be carried out.

So something as simple as getting regular, good sleep is one way to reduce the chances of being overly nervous in a job interview.

• Related article: "Tips to sleep well and beat insomnia"

2. don't fantasize

There are many people who tend to fantasize a lot, imagining the best of possible futures from a key milestone that, in the case at hand, may be the job interview itself. This is exhilarating, but it also makes us prone to obsessing over a selection process that doesn't have to be all that decisive, nor does it have to require so much attention and care from us to go through it satisfactorily.

In this case, the fear of frustration is what leads us to do everything possible to make that ideal life that we have imagined become a reality. To prevent this type of problem, everything happens by trying to be realistic and combining the illusion with a potential new job with the fact of taking into account the more than likely imperfections of the position we aspire to cover.

3. Prepare the interview

Obviously, the better prepared we are for the interview, the more likely we are to feel prepared. ourselves to go through this selection stage, leaving a good taste in the mouths of the interviewers.

Therefore, the ideal is to make a list of objective needs that must be covered to go to the interview in conditions, Sorting them by priority and importance, and go fulfilling them before the indicated day arrives. For example: buy a suitable wardrobe if we don't already have it, think about what we will say when they ask us why we are interested in the position, know how to get to the offices where the interviews are carried out, do some research on the company that has the vacancies, etc

4. leave with time

Leaving with a lot of time to spare for the job interview is highly recommended to control your nerves, since allows us not to sweat or get tired and, with it, that we go through the unpleasant experience of arriving at the office appearing to be exhausted and disheveled. In addition, this will allow us to carry out the following advice.

5. Do relaxation exercises

If possible, do relaxation exercises in the waiting room. They should be very simple and basic, focused on breathing and muscle relaxation, since you obviously can't do things like lie on the floor or adopt strange postures. In this way, just before you present yourself to HR staff, your stress levels will be lower.