Show your best self at that job interview
By Sally Race Clinical Hypnotherapist
We’ve all been there, you see a job
advertised, its perfect for you, maybe even your dream job. You have all the essential
qualifications and experience and complete an application form amazingly. So
you get offered an interview, which you’re so excited about! Hurrah!
Then …. the nerves set in, you know that
you’re going to dry up, your memory will fail, you’ll spill any drink they
offer you and /or say something stupid. A million possibilities of something
going wrong go through your mind and you may lose sleep as the interview date
comes closer, maybe even consider cancelling the interview.
In reality you know that you can do the job
fabulously, so why all the negativity and stress?
Its just how you’ve learned to feel for
lots of possible reasons, but what you need to know is that you can learn to
feel differently.
Here are my top tips for interview prep;
1, Do your prep. Learn about the company,
read the job spec and have a guess at what questions they might ask and think
about how you could answer them. Read up on anything related to the job that
might be helpful.
2. Correct labeling. You will feel nervous,
we all do at interviews, but you can choose how to interpret that funny feeling
in your tummy and your strongly beating heart. Nervous anxiety or nervous
excitement? They both have exactly the same feelings/symptoms and remember that
this is your dream job, so, choose to label this as excitement J
3. Be active. In the days leading up to
your interview, DO NOT be a couch potato! The funny nervous feeling you
experience are a result of a hormone release into your blood stresm,
activity/exercise help to release these from your system (it can also help you
sleep better and releases endorphins – win – win).
4. Affirmations. Write yourself a list of
positive affirmations and recite them with passion several times a day. Here
are a few affirmation examples;
*I can be amazing in this role
*I look forward to showing the interview
people how I can do this role
*I’m excited to be going for the interview
*This interview is a great opportunity for
me to practice being amazing at interviews
*I’m excited to be able to tell them about
all my relevant skills and knowledge
5. Notice your self talk and thoughts,
correct then whenever needed. Those negative thoughts don’t usually disappear
overnight, like anything that you want to change, it takes a little practice.
So notice whenever a negative thought pops into your head or out of your mouth
and change the wording. i.e. “I feel really nervous about my interview.” Change
to “I was nervous, but now I’m excited to show them that I can do the job
well”.
6. Power pose! Yes, your read that right.
You know that you can tell how someone is feeling by their posture right?
Slumped shoulders, head drooped down, you know they’re not feeling great and no
one wants to feel like that.
You know the postures that show people to
be confident, happy, excited etc don’t you? Well, they are the poses to
practice, winning ones, confident ones. Obviously you don’t want to be throwing
your arms up in the air in the interview as if you are crossing the finishing
line as the winner of a race, but practicing this in the run up to the
interview (even in the loo just prior to the interview) is perfect. You see,
our feelings result in postures, but it also works in reverse, when we adopt
these power poses, they start to change our feelings. Try it, give Mo Farrah’s
pose a go, or throw your arm/arms up in the air like a winner, put your hands
on your hips like the ‘wonder woman’ pose.
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7. Remember what this is really about. This
is just an opportunity for you to show the people in the room how well you can
do the job and how you’d like to work with them. This is after all what they
want to hear. Be passionate, it isn’t really about you, its about the job 😉
I hope my tips help, if you feel you could
benefit from a little more help, then hypnotherapy and NLP could be the answer
for you. Consultations to find out more, are free of charge and completely
confidential.
Sally J
