How to Stay Relaxed During (And Make the Most of) a Job Interview

US News shares some thoughts on how to stay relaxed during a job interview. It's an "ok" piece in my opinion, but they leave out the BEST way (again, in my opinion) to stay relaxed during a job interview: rehearse.

Yep, you heard it correctly. If you rehearse the job interview in advance, you will be much more relaxed. You'll also perform better and be much more likely to get the job offer.

Here's what I mean when I say you should rehearse a job interview:

• You need to list every question you think a potential employer might ask you (including the "dreaded" tell-me-about-yourself question). Do a web search, you should be able to find the most common ones in about 1.3 seconds. When I was interviewing several years ago I think I had 50 or so questions listed.
• Write out your responses to each question. I literally typed up several pages of question, then answer, question, then answer, over and over again. Be sure your answers include quantifiable accomplishments. If you need examples of what these should look like, read How to Write a Winning Resume (of course, your answers will be longer than a bullet-point, but this post will show you what you need to include) and How to Make a Minor Accomplishment into a Major Resume Success.  
• Practice your responses out loud, editing them to make sure they are "smooth". We speak/hear much differently than we write, so it's likely your initial answers will need to be changed a bit to reflect the fact that they will ultimately be spoken.
• Edit the responses so they are concise. Don't take 10 minutes describing what you can get across in two. If you are to-the-point in your answers, this will reflect positively on the employer's perception of your communication skills.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Literally read the question and give the answer out loud. Initially, you'll need to read the answers, but ultimately you'll begin memorizing them and won't need to look at the pages for your responses. I used to rehearse for two to three weeks this way (going through all the questions once per day) until I got really good.
• Make it human. Once you get the answers down cold, start to inject actions that make them more realistic and natural. Add in hand motions, voice inflections, laughs/smiles, specific facial expressions based on the topic, and so on -- things that people put into conversation naturally. And in case you're wondering, yes, I did do this and yes, I am recommending rehearsing what many people consider to be unrehearsable traits. They are NOT unrehearsable. Just ask actors...
• If you like, you can rehearse with a friend to better simulate an interview. Have the friend ask the questions and you give the answers. This allows you to practice the answers, your natural actions, eye contact, and much more.
• If you want to take this to the next level, go out and do some practice interviews. Apply for jobs that you don't really want simply to get in the interview practice. Afterwards, evaluate how you did and make adjustments in your answers and mannerisms accordingly.

If you complete all of these steps you'll be as prepared as anyone for interview success. And someone who is prepared is much more likely to be relaxed. Why? Because he knows he's ready for almost anything. And no, this process won't cover every question/situation/interviewer that you might run into, but it will certainly cover 90% or so. Using these methods I don't think I was ever caught off-guard in an interview. And as a result, I was much more relaxed during the entire process.

And let me mention something people often bring up: that rehearsing will make you appear stiff. No, it won't. If anything, it will make you seem more natural (because you will be more relaxed and you've practiced being natural.) It will make you seem to be a great communicator (whether you are or not) -- someone who has "just the right answer" and who is concise. It will make sure you don't forget to mention any of your many, substantial accomplishments. Again, consider actors. Do they appear stiff because they rehearse? No, they are more believable and "natural" because they rehearse. This is the same result you'll get with the steps above.

I've been interviewed hundreds of times over the past 20 years and have interviewed hundreds more to boot. I know from practical experience that this method works. As I said in an earlier post, I think I've received all but maybe 10% of the job offers I've ever interviewed for using this method. Not a bad result at all. And believe me, you can tell when someone is not prepared. Ever interview a person and have them respond with something like, "Wow, that's a good question. Umm...ummm...umm..." or fumble over a meaningless response that did more to damage their chances for the job than help them? It's not pretty. And it makes them more nervous than they already are. These are negative results you can avoid if you simply rehearse your interview questions.

If you're getting ready to go out on some interviews, there's much more you need to do than what's listed above. For specifics, see my post titled An Interview is a Test You Can Study For. But if you're looking to relax in an interview, go no farther than the suggestions in this post.

Comments

[Ravi Gupta]

I would say one of the best ways to practice for an interview is to mock interview. I did so many of them last year that when I had a surprise phone interview this morning I felt confident even with a stutter. If you're in a University sign up for them (they're free) and you will find yourself becoming more able to answer these questions better.

-Ravi Gupta

[Sunil from The Extra Money Blog]

there is also a psychological advantage to prepping/rehearsing. i have secured several high paying consulting gigs, and i approach each corporate meeting / presentation as a large scale case interview as there are often more than just a couple execs around the shinny brown oak table

[MBTN]

When I was graduating from college, I went on at least 10 job interviews (probably more). One thing that I noticed that I got better and more comfortable with them, especially since most asked pretty much the same questions. By the time I got to the last few, I had my "script" down pat.

Since then, the other thing that I've done is I had an opportunity to attend a Dale Carnegie course. Dale Carnegie has a big public speaking component. Their advice is to know your material so well that it becomes so natural that you can deliver it without notes. The thought is that if you give a speech or talk without any notes, it will sounds more natural and you will connect with the audience better. This approach has the added advantage of working well for a job interview situation, because obviously you cannot read from a speech when you are answering interview questions.

The other thing that they taught in Dale Carnegie was how to give a impromptu talk. Basically, the strategy was to pause to collect your thoughts, think of a story that relates to the topic, and tell that story. Again, sounds similiar to what FMF is saying. I've noticed since my class that politicians use a variation of this strategy in debates. They have a mental list of "talking points" they want to cover, and when a question is asked, they pick the talking point which matches the question, and weave the answer around that talking point. The best are able to incorporate their talking point seamlessly regardless of the quetion and without the audience noticing that they are co-opting the question.