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Nervous interviewer? 3 confidence-building tips for interviews

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Intense sweating?

Blanking out?

Clicking your pen?

Rambling?

You might be a nervous interviewer. I see lots of people who are anxious before their interviews. It’s natural. It’s a sign you care a lot. It also sucks because it gets in your way of performing well and landing that dang job. 

BUT, with the right mindset and preparation, you can approach your next job interview with confidence and boost those chances of success. Let’s explore some tips and insights I share with my clients that can help you navigate the interview process with more ease.

#1: YOU ARE QUALIFIED! EMBRACE THAT AND RELAX

Most people who struggle with interviews often experience anxiety because they anticipate being asked questions they either won’t be able to answer at all, or won’t have a good answer to. 

However, if you’re applying for jobs you know you’re qualified for, the chances of running into a question you can’t handle are pretty close to zero. 

Remember, the only reason you’re even in the interview is because you have the skills and experience the employer is seeking. Rather than letting anxiety take over, allow yourself to relax and trust in your abilities. When you’re relaxed, you’re more likely to feel confident and provide thoughtful responses.

They are not going to stump you!

#2: BRING YOUR PERSONALITY TO THE INTERVIEW

It’s easy to slip out of your natural personality in an interview because the power dynamic can make you nervous. To combat this, consciously remind yourself to stay grounded in your personality in the interview. 

One thing that can help you stay in your personality is breaking the ice early. Try making a casual observation about the interviewer’s room or background during the initial introductions. 

For example, you could say something like, “Wow, I just gotta say, your cork board is huge! I need me something like THAT!” or “Before we start, I just wanna say your background kinda reminds me of that one scene in Finding Nemo!” or “I see the sun is shining where you are, and it’s reminding me I need to go get some sun today!” 

These small personal touches can help you relax and allow your true personality to shine through.

#3: PAUSE BEFORE RESPONDING

Even when you know you have a solid answer to a question, resist the urge to respond immediately. 

Instead, take a brief pause – a second or two – before answering. Look up, thoughtful as always, and then provide your response. This small pause can help you gather and organize your thoughts, preventing rambling or incoherent answers. 

Additionally, it conveys valuable intangibles to your interviewers, such as confidence, an ability to think carefully on your feet, and comfort handling pressure (even if you don’t actually feel that way in the moment).

And there ya go! Start with these tips, and go from there.

Remember, if you’re applying for jobs that align with your qualifications, you’re likely to have good answers to the interview questions.

By embracing your qualifications, bringing your personality to the interview, and pausing before responding, you’ll help yourself take the edge off your anxiety in your next job interview.

Good luck out there interviewers!

Curious about more?

You’re job searching–or thinking about job searching–and not having a good time?

You’re putting off job searching because you’re worried about the stress?

Yeah it’s hard out there.

Coaching might be a good resource for you, but if you’re like most people, you’re probably not sure.

If you’d like to know more about coaching, how it has helped others in your situation, and how it can help you, fill out your info below or email me at brandon@begallantcoaching.com.

I’ll send you a quick email with some brief information you can read and digest on your own time.

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Or you can just sign up for a free consultation with me here.

Either way, let’s stay connected!

~B

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Not getting many interviews? This could be why…

I talk to job seekers just about every day. 

By the time they come talk to me (click here if you’re ready), they’ve usually been searching for a while. They’re also usually pretty frustrated, confused, and at least a little disappointed because they’re struggling to land interviews. And it’s pretty hard to get jobs if you’re not getting interviews.

Here’s the thing: It’s not that they’re not applying for enough job openings–they’re usually applying for plenty (in some cases 100s). It’s not that they’re not qualified for the jobs they’re applying for–they have great qualifications. It’s also not that they don’t have the right skills–they’re skills are valuable and aligned with the job description.

So what’s the deal?! Why so few interviews???

Walk with me…

YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE…

You gotta tailor your resume to the job description. Scan the job description to identify the keywords and make sure you include them and speak to those skills. This is very important.

But you’ve heard this before, right?

You’ve already done this. Over and over. Every time, in fact. And you’re still bamboozled because…crickets.

Still little to no interviews to show for it. Damn.

I hear this story from job seekers ALL THE TIME, and here’s what I’ve noticed.

In the vast majority of cases (very nearly all of them), their resume is almost entirely tasky. Take a look at your work experience in your resume. Is it essentially no more than a list of tasks you’ve carried out? That is not a good thing. If it’s basically just a list of tasks you’ve carried out, then there’s no difference between you and anyone else who’s carried out those same tasks (at least on paper). And in that case, there’s no real reason for a hiring manager to interview you over anyone else with the same or similar job history.

If your resume is task-driven, you probably won’t land very many interviews. In order to differentiate yourself from other candidates, you need your resume to be results-driven.

 TASK-DRIVEN VS. RESULTS-DRIVEN

A task-driven resume is essentially the job descriptions of the jobs you’ve held. It may demonstrate skills, but no matter how aligned those skills are, there’s nothing really special about that resume because it tells me nothing about your proficiency with the skills. Having the skills is great, but what a hiring manager ultimately cares about is whether or not you can actually produce desirable results.

All of your bullet points should clearly demonstrate that you have a track record of driving a positive impact in your work. This is how you show them you were actually successful and are a top-notch employee.

And that’s the candidate that gets interviews.

Show me those numbers, those increases, those tangible changes!

THE USUAL FOLLOW-UP QUESTION

“But Brandon, I feel like I don’t really have many outcomes to speak to, so what do I do?”

I usually get some version of that when I give this feedback to someone. Here’s my response:

How did you and/or your supervisor know you were successful at this *chooses random bullet point* task?

Light bulb moment! The answer to that question is a positive outcome, and you should speak to it! And I bet you can answer that question for each of your bullet points.

I bet the reason why you’re having such a hard time identifying results you’ve produced is because you’re thinking strictly in terms of the numbers. And numbers are good! Great, in fact. If you can attach a % increase or number to it, please definitely do so. But if you can’t–depending on your role or your field it might be hard to have the numbers on hand–that doesn’t mean you don’t still have positive results to speak to.

You can–and absolutely should–still produce a results-driven resume. Every time.

WRAPPING UP

If your resume is task-driven, you’re facing an uphill battle. Candidates with task-driven resumes are really hard to distinguish between, especially if they have a similar background or work history. It’s also really hard to tell your proficiency if you’re just describing the tasks you’ve executed.

So let’s see those outcomes!

WANT MORE SUPPORT?

The people in my coaching program get this kind of stuff from me all the time. And if you’ve been job searching for a while now, you probably recognize that a successful job search goes way beyond a good resume. 

Job searching is hard. Where do you even start? How do you make a good resume (and cover letter)? How do you communicate the unique value you bring via your professional brand? How do you network in a way that’s strategic and gets your foot in the door?

Come talk to me! We cover all this and more in my coaching programs (click here for details!). If you want to bring your search to a close and land a job that you really feel good in, then give yourself permission to look into some good support.

Get a head start on the new year and step out of your comfort zone so you can land that new job. I’ll help you!

Fill out this short interest form today and I’ll contact you!

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How to Ask for an Informational Interview

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So networking is a crucial part of a job search, and it can be somewhat of an uncomfortable thing to engage in. Specifically, what can be one of the more socially awkward networking activities is the dreaded informational interview.

Not all informational interviews involve cold-messaging a complete stranger on LinkedIn–sometimes you have the luxury of just asking one of your friends or mentors about their work experience. However, we often find ourselves needing to reach out to a complete stranger. 

Dang.

This is especially true if and when we’re looking to pivot our career or enter an industry in which we don’t already have an established network. Maybe that doesn’t intimidate you, and you know just how to go about it. If that’s the case, congrats! Get out there and request those informational interviews!

If it is a little intimidating to you, and you’re not really sure how to go about it, read on. I have Gravy for you.

SETTLE DOWN

Deep breath innnn.

Hold for 3 seconds.

And releasssse.

Try to relax your nerves a little. Asking for an informational interview may seem awkward, but it’s a totally normal thing to ask of someone. You don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself, or on the other person. Remember, you’re not asking them for a job, you’re not asking them for a job interview. You’re asking them for time and information.

Speaking of information…

DO SOME RESEARCH

Before you reach out to anyone, you should spend some time (1) thinking about what kind of information you’re looking for, (2) identifying people who might have useful information for you, and (3) researching their work experience.

If you’re totally lost on where to start, here’s a tip: Make a list of skills, strengths, job titles, or job functions that are relevant to your career goals. Take that list of keywords and input them into the search bar on LinkedIn in different combinations. For example, if you’re interested in UX Design, writing, collaboration, and policy, you might enter “UX Design, writing” into the search bar. Or “UX Design, policy.” You get the idea. From there, you’ll get a list of people who have those terms in their profile!

Take a look at some of those people and see what you can learn about them. Do you have mutual connections (you should try to find people you have mutual connections with)? Is what they do actually interesting to you? What are some of their major accomplishments?

Another tip: Try not to target recruiters or hiring managers. Find someone on the team that can get you good insider information.

It’ll take time, but it’ll be well worth it.

And speaking of time…

BE RESPECTFUL OF THEIR TIME

Informational interviews should be relatively short–somewhere around 20-30 minutes. They’re doing this for you for free, and like most of us, they’re probably got other things to do. So keep the timeframe of what you’re asking for short–something easy to say yes to.

And when they do say yes, you want to make the time count by having good questions to ask. Which is also why you want to do your research on them beforehand. Don’t waste their time (or yours) by setting up an informational interview and then just staring at them and expecting them to just give you a bunch of information.

Of course, you might get more no’s than yeses to your request for time. Again, that’s normal, don’t let it discourage you. Try someone else and keep going!

THE ASK

When you reach out, you should start with a brief introduction of yourself and how you found them (i.e. they’re doing work that interests you and you saw that you have mutual connections, you listened to their podcast, someone recommended them to you, etc.)…

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P.S.: If you’re interested in some good sample questions to ask in an info interview, contact me and let’s talk!

Next Issue on July 6th: The Job-Hopping Stigma

Have you ever wondered if job-hopping will hurt your career? Let’s talk about it next time!

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Update: Career Compass Assessment

Are you feeling lost, stuck, or confused in your career?

Maybe you come home at night and vent to your friends about how much you can’t stand your job.

Or you wake up and lay in bed wondering, “I need to start job searching soon.”

You know you want to take your career in a different direction, you’re just not sure where to begin.

Then it’s time for you to take the Career Compass Assessment and…
  • Address the frustration of knowing you have transferable skills, but not really knowing what they are exactly
  • Understand exactly what’s causing you pain in your current job, and what’s standing in the way of having a career you really want
  • Finally deal with your current career confusion that has you complaining about your job, but not doing anything about it

You’ll walk away with a personalized report detailing what your skills indicate about your career journey, and you’ll know what step you need to take next to get yourself in motion!

How it works:

You’ll do a brief online assessment and then hop on a 45 minute 1 on 1 zoom session with me.

The Career Compass Assessment Program is currently being offered at $83!

At the end you will know:

  • What transferable skills you ALREADY HAVE to offer that are currently in-demand
  • Potential job fits that would actually energize you instead of drain you
  • What steps you should take in the short-term to finally move you toward a job you’ll love

Contact me and include “Career Compass” below to get started!

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