How to overcome job interview anxiety? I've got 5 powerful hacks for you today.
I am a professional psychologist. What I'm going to share with you today is psychologically sound
but you might wonder about my own psychological stability when we get to the last one.
Hack number one and this doesn't even have anything to do with a job interview.
Understand anxiety. What it is? How it works? What causes it? What's my mind doing
that is perpetuating this feeling of being nervous or anxious? Anxiety has 2 basic components.
There's the brain component and there's the mind component. Now, the brain is an organ in your body
and it's designed to take care of you. Anytime it detects a threat which is a danger of some kind,
it kicks you into a chemical response we usually call it the fight-or-flight response. That's the
physiological basis for anxiety. You need to understand that because there are things that
you can do to manage your own anxiety response and then on the mind side, there's thinking going on.
You'll notice I made a distinction between brain and mind. Mind is you. It's the observer, it's the
agent. It's the thinker and the decider inside of there. Now, you have a brain but you're not your
body. You're inside of that. The mind component of anxiety has to do with the what if questions.
And it usually happens on a subconscious level where this what if question causes a
threat. And it's not even the question so much as the answer. Because subconsciously, we tend
to answer the what if questions with, "Oh, I can't handle that." See, how that represents a threat?
And then that triggers the brain, the chemistry. We're off to the races with the fight-or-flight
response. Anxiety is really important to understand. And if you need some help with that,
go to some of the other videos here on the channel or at Live On Purpose Central where we go into
some more depth on how to handle that anxiety. Hack number 2 comes from years of experience
working with anxiety where I found that it has a lot to do with our focus. Notice that your focus
is typically either how you feel or how other people feel about you or about other people. So,
when you overlay those 2, it creates kind of a quadrant system. Is my focus on how I feel about
me? Is my focus on how you feel about me? Or is my focus on how I feel about you? Or is my
focus on how you feel about yourself? When we get focused on ourselves, when it's about us,
we experience more anxiety. nd that's whether it's about how I feel about myself or how you
feel about me. Either way, if my focus is in that space, I'm going to feel more anxiety. Have you
experienced this yourself? So, what if we shift the focus, I had a coaching session with one of
my clients just a few days ago. He's a young man aged 17 who is about to apply for a job that he
really wants to get. As I was asking him about this job, the reason he wants to get this job
is so that he can help other people in a very specific way that he has some talents and skills
to do. But he was nervous about the interview. And so, I introduced this concept to him and I said,
"What if you were to shift your focus? What if you were to go to that interview not for yourself
but on behalf of all of those people that you could help if you got the position? Go for them.
Speak for them. Show up for them. He got this big smile on his face as the anxiety almost
immediately diminished. Can you feel that? What if that's not about you? What if you're showing up to
that interview on behalf of someone else? You're going to feel less anxiety. Focusing on ourselves
causes anxiety. Get the focus off of you, you're going to feel less anxiety. Hack number 3,
prepare well. Preparation diminishes fear more than anything I know. In fact, my friend Dan Clark
says this. He is a professional speaker, hall of fame. One of the most inspiring men that I know.
And he said, "You know, people don't actually fear speaking." You might not fully agree with
that but listen to the rest of it. He says, "They fear not speaking well. And that's the
same thing with the interview." You don't fear the interview you fear bombing the interview. So,
practice. Do a few live runs. Most of the time you can anticipate what some of the questions will be.
Why should we hire you? What's unique about you that's different from other applicants?
How would you handle conflict if it came up on the job?
Some of these are predictable, right? So, do a dry run with a live person. I emphasize the live part
because they're going to have some reactions to you and that's going to help you to manage your
nerves, to practice your responses. You can get some feedback from them. Practice. Hack number 4,
while you're practicing with a live person, make the mistakes that you're afraid of making.
Does that sound weird? It helps you psychologically because you've got at
a subconscious level, this what-if question going on. "What if I stutter? What if I accidentally say
the wrong thing?" What if I... What if... What if I... Okay? This creates anxiety. In your practice
session, just make the blunder. Do the thing that you're afraid of doing. In the practice session,
what you're going to find is you're going to feel a little ridiculous doing it first of all.
To make a mistake on purpose makes it less likely that you're going to do it by accident. I'm not
even sure why that's true. But that bears out in my own experience and a lot of people that
I've talked to about this. Just practice it. Practice making the mistakes. I know that sounds
weird but give it a try. Hack number 5. This is the one I told you you might not be sure I
was serious about it. Go into the interview with some food item hidden somewhere in your clothing.
-"Hold on. Are we really adding that? Are you serious?" -I told you. See my team here doesn't
even think that I'm serious. I am dead serious about that. Like a dried apple in your shoe.
Or lunch meat on your shoulder. -Oh, my gosh. -I know that seems ridiculous but you know what? It
helps you take yourself less seriously. You might try some grated cheese in your shorts.
How about some breakfast cereal? You know what? Actually, be careful with this one
because it tends to be a little noisy. It can get crunchy and that's not so good in the interview.
How are you feeling right now as we discussed this? Did you get a little chuckle out of that
when I pulled lunch meat out of my shoulder? You get to take yourself a little less seriously. And
this will help. You know what? I honestly got this idea from Garrett Gunderson when he was doing a
seminar on helping people with confidence in their finances and investing. And garrett had a bagel
hidden somewhere on him. It sounds ridiculous but it's actually a pretty good way to take yourself a
little less seriously and remind yourself to just show up in a genuine way. It puts you at ease.
And that's going to help put other people at ease. Give it a try. Let me know what
your experience is. If you know someone who's anticipating or preparing for an interview,
you might volunteer to be the person they practice with. And share this video with them.
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