3 ways to build more confidence for interviews

Interviews are stressful.

We’ve all been through a bad interview in our lives. Some of us have been through multiple bad interviews.

Myself included.

One time, in college, I was so desperate for a job that I spent the three days leading up to the interview planning out my entire answers for every possible question they could ask me. I memorized what I was going to say and recited it back to myself in my room.

As the minutes ticked down before my call, my heart started racing faster and faster.

15 minutes to go… 10 minutes to go… 5 minutes to go… RING RING!

I was already in shambles as I picked up the phone. My heart was pounding and I was almost out of breath.

As the interviewer started asking questions, my confidence shattered.

I couldn’t remember any of the answers I had planned!

I stuttered through my answers and froze multiple times, my memory turning to nothing but a smoky fog.

“This is a disaster” I thought, as I desperately tried to regain confidence.

But it was too late.

The interviewer must have thought I was a caveman who had no previous human contact before.

The interview ended and I never heard back.

I felt dumb asking for feedback knowing that I had been awful, but I tried asking anyways.

Crickets.

Fast forward to today, and I now coach interviewing skills for a living to job seekers looking to level up.

I’ve helped over 1500 people land jobs in the last 5 years as the President and Senior Advisor of Labtuit.

Here are three crucial ways to improve your confidence in interviews:

1. Remember that interviews are a two-way street.

This seems obvious but we forget this too often.

Whether you’ve battled months of rejections or you’ve been out of work for awhile and the finances are getting tight or you’ve got an interview coming up for your DREAM JOB and you don’t want to screw it up, you try so hard to impress the interviewer.

Confidence is impressive. Desperation is not.

It’s a lot easier to shed the feeling of desperation when you remember that they’re not just interviewing you. You’re also interviewing them.

Go into an interview with the mindset that you’re trying to determine if this role is the right fit for you. Will it make you happy? Will it pay you what you’re worth? Will it help you grow and feel fulfilled?

Ask insightful questions like these:

• What does the ideal candidate look like for this role?

• What is the most important quality you’re looking for when making your hiring decision?

• What are some challenges that the company facing right now?

• What resources would be available to me if I need help in my development?

• Where do you hope to see the person that you hire for this role in one year? Three years?

2. Stop demanding perfection of yourself.

I owned my own marketing company for 5 years. When I would interview people for my company, I would always have people apologizing to me for being nervous.

I’m not sure who needs to hear this but… it’s normal to be nervous!

Here’s another secret: most hiring managers want you to relax in your interviews so they can get a better read on the real you.

Some of the most intelligent and successful people in the world are not naturally personable.

Lots of companies probably wouldn’t hire Mark Zuckerberg if he interviewed for a job because he’d probably go four minutes without blinking and freak them out.

Next time you’re going into an interview, instead of letting that voice inside your head take over and say, “don’t screw this up, you can’t make mistakes,” tell yourself that it’s impossible to be perfect in an interview.

It’s ok to make mistakes. It’s ok to have some pauses. It’s ok to give a B answer to some of the questions instead of your A+ answer.

Cutting yourself some slack will help you relax and it will instill confidence in you.

3. Predict interview topics, not specific questions.

It’s not possible to predict every interview question exactly.

Remember my story about blanking out and freezing? Yeah, that’s because I tried to write a mental script for all my answers.

That doesn’t work.

An easier and much more effective way of preparing for interviews is to predict topics rather than questions.

For example, it’s much easier to have an example ready to share about your “leadership skills” than to develop different answers for question variations such as:

• “What is your leadership style?”

• “What do you like about being a leader?”

• “Tell me about a time you had to unexpectedly step up as a leader

If you prepare one strong story to demonstrate your leadership abilities, you can adapt your answer to different types of questions.

How can you effectively predict interview topics?

Re-read the job description 5-6 times.

Brian, 5-6 times?

Yes. Each time you read the job description, you might catch something new. You’ll also pick up on trending keywords throughout the job description (i.e the words “client retention” are mentioned 8 times —> THAT SKILL IS IMPORTANT)

That’s it!

Implement these three things into your next interview and you’ll be amazed by how much more it feels like a natural conversation instead of torture.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Schedule a call with me. If you’re looking for more guidance on your job search or more options for help, let’s talk.

2. Check out my additional courses and downloadable resources. Use the systems I’ve used to help 1500+ candidates land jobs in the past 5 years.