Remember the first interview you had? How you wanted to make sure you wore the right outfit, said the right things, had enough copies of your resume, got there on time…. Did you have a stomach filled with nervous knots, like many of us did (and do) before walking in? Have those worries and feelings changed since then? If not, you may want to read on for some confidence boosting.
The fact of the matter is that if you do something often enough, you will get better at it. This goes for interviews as well; the more you work and change jobs, the more experience you’ll have when the next interview rolls around. Take all of that as points of strength the next time you walk into a potential employer’s office and rid yourself of some of those stomach knots.
- Utilize your work experience. If you’ve already had a few jobs, you have a base to discuss in the interview. For example, when asked questions about how you would handle certain situations in the new position, you can reference something similar you did at a previous job and discuss how you used your skills to successfully navigate the situation. Or you can explain how your current job has given you skills that you can utilize in this future position. By having a work history, you have tangible experience (and superiors/co-workers) you can refer a potential employer to.
- Go over past interviews. What questions did they ask? How did you answer — and how did the interviewer respond? Review the high and low points. What parts of the interviews will you bring to the next one, and what mistakes/wrong turns will you not repeat? What about your responses: Did you stay on point or did you ramble in an attempt to answer the questions fully? After you’ve reviewed your old interviews, walk into your next interview knowing you’ve dealt with this situation before, so you’re ready for whatever they throw at you.
- Practice makes perfect. Your work history and interview experience give you a serious leg up on younger and more inexperienced candidates. Most companies do want to hire someone who already knows what he’s doing, to some extent. You no longer have to deal with the age-old frustration of getting a job without having experience/getting experience without a job. You’ve already cleared that hurdle…and you have a few interviews under your belt, so you have some sense of how to handle the room already. And you have enough overall experience to know for certain that sometimes the company will hire someone else due to factors utterly out of your control.
While the anticipation of an interview may always make you a little nervous, rest assured that practice and preparedness are the keys to success. Take the time to thoroughly prepare for each interview you are invited to and feel confident that you are prepared and will do well. Reach out to our experienced recruiters at PrideStaff Thousand Oaks for more help preparing for your next interview.
