Introduction
Feeling of emotional or physical tension, when your body reacts to a challenge or demand. Stress can be good or bad. Good if you channelize your stress into action and work on those shortcoming factors. It’s bad when you start sweating in the interview, or your body language shows the sign of stressing like avoid eye contact, shivering. It can ruin your dream company interview into a nightmare. One bad interview is sufficient to break a person’s spirit. Those questions will haunt you for many upcoming days, and you can’t do anything about it. Most of the interviews go bad because an interviewee may be nervous. This happens because we overthink topics like “What if I forget what I had prepared for the interview? When I ask a question, what if I lose my way around the question? What if I end up answering out of context?”
An interview is a difficult trial. But you can excel in this process by following simple steps like Relax, breathe and stay calm. Pay attention to your body language, maintain eye contact with the interviewer, gentle smile on your face, keep interacting with the panel. Listen to the question more carefully, be focused, then take some pause to answer them. If you are taking an interview for the first time, better prepare well before your colleagues or elders/seniors ask them to conduct a demo interview, so you feel confident about the D- day. This might happen; you would have no clue about some of the questions. In that scenario, think about the problem-solving approach, take some time and then respond, or you can say no if you can’t think about that situation. Some key aspects of cracking an interview are: optimistic focus on areas you are good at, being pragmatic while answering, taking relevant examples of how you approached the solution, and slow toning speech.
Try to do an interview in your favour
We will brief you about some of the basics and most asked questions in the interview so you can prepare well before your interview.
The first and most asked in every interview is, could you please introduce yourself?
If you are a fresh graduate looking for a job, you can mention your graduate background, and then academics details keep it short and formal knowledge should be delivered. Then you detail them about what skill set you to have your academics project. Why you choose this project, then you may add about any supporting certification, awards/recognition you have achieved in your academics or school. You can also mention any sports you have played at the national or state level.
Now the reason why I told you the key points how you should answer the introduction question is you will feel more confident, and the next question will be asked to you based on your answer. Then you will get a couple of questions based on your academics and project some technical questions.
If you are a salaried employee, you can commence by mentioning your job role, projects you have worked on, your challenges while dealing with clients, what approaches you took to achieve great profits. The point is to bring all the positive work you have done. This will boost your level of confidence and will understand your method and approach well.
Ask relevant questions while you are given a chance. This will increase your chance of getting selected because they will have a clear idea about joining the company. Ask them questions like
- What are some key responsibilities you would be holding?
- What is the work culture of your company?
- What are some of the qualities a successful person holds in your company?
- What is the learning growth of an employee in your company?
- Which team would I be working with? What would be the team size?
These are some of the questions which will show your curiosity about the job role.
Even if you aren’t offered the job, there are still many ways you can learn and improve from the interview.
How to nail your interview?
Avoid awkward silence in the interview; keep interacting with the panel. You can prepare the behavioral/ technical questions one- or two days before your interview day. Be prepared, search about the company. You need to know what you are stepping into, clear your mind revise the topics you have prepared. You have been selected for this interview because of your CV/ resume. So, study your resume very well; there can be chances interviewer will read your CV thoroughly and would expect an answer for it. You can prepare short descriptions about each and everything you wrote in your CV. If you wrote about traveling as your hobby, so interviewer could ask you what genre of books you have read.
What are your strengths and weakness? Or how you handle stress in your current job role? This is one of the most asked questions. Be professional in answering such questions. Focus on the stories or examples that communicate and justify personal growth. What measures you have taken to work on the stress and your weakness. You can answer such as good pressure help me being motivated to work and a lot of pressure results in stress and initially it was difficult to handle so many works at the same time. But with time and responsibility increasing, I am a multi-tasker now and able to manage multiple projects simultaneously. I start my day by prioritizing the work and schedule it accordingly; it’s manageable now.
Remember that your interviewer is there to hire you, not to affront
Forget formalities, remember your interviewer is also human, so there can be chances when he would be nervous. Your interviewer is well aware of the fact that people are nervous and anxious on the day. They understand people make mistakes in this state. They won’t judge you if you fumble one or two times.
The same applies to video interviews which are the new normal due to the current COVID-19 situation. Interviewers are sympathetic towards the network connectivity, possible interruptions. However, they will not reject you based on these things. Most of the interviewer tries to make candidate comfortable and then ask questions when they see candidate has prepared well and seems confident.
Reduce caffeine intake before the interview
Caffeine increases your heart rate; you might get sweaty palm syndrome. This might imbalance your sleeping habit. You need a fresh mind and a relaxed body before the interview. Avoid a rich-calorie diet one day before the interview. These little things might affect your health and could stress you in the interview process.
Final thoughts before the interview
Drink water, do not overload the intake. Take three to four deep breaths, try to meditate. Do not overtalk the people around or the people who are waiting to be interviewed. They might add some topics or give certain reviews about the interviewer to reduce your confidence level. Avoid all those scenarios, those are their experience, and you might not experience the same. Normalize your heart rate and calm your mind. The presence of mind is very important in the interview. These key aspects will help you achieve your dream company job.
Any suggestions on the topic are appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
