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3 Strategies to Calm Yourself before Job Interviews





Over the years I have deliberately placed myself into situations that make me fearful. This is because I coach people to overcome fear and feeling fear myself helps me to help them.

A few years ago I put myself into skydiving school to cure my chronic fear of heights. I lost 7 lbs of weight in 5 days through my stress response. But I learned to manage my fear and harness it to get the job done.

I don’t fear heights anymore, I fear parachute packers. I had 2 parachute malfunctions in one week because of them!

A little bit of stress is good. It keeps you focused and helps you get the job done.But it needs to be managed or it can overwhelm us and inhibit performance. 

These are 3 strategies from my class on managing fear. They helped me perform under stress, they'll help you too.

Strategy 1 - Prepare like your life depends on it

When my parachute malfunctioned for the first time, I knew exactly what to do because I had learned and practiced HOW to deal with it. I’m alive and writing this article because of my preparation.

Going into an interview your confidence and performance is directly linked to the prior preparation that you carry out.
You must read the JD carefully and analyse the competencies they will assess you on, think and practice how to introduce yourself and your relevant experiences, research the company, research the interviewer, think about what they will ask you, plan your answers and plan what you may ask them. 

The more time you spend here, the calmer you’ll feel on the day.

Try using the research tools in our programme to ensure you plan and prepare strategically for your interview.

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Strategy 2 - Breathe like a warrior before battle

Waiting for the plane to take off I noticed my throat was dry. This was because I was breathing fast and shallow. It meant my heart-rate was high. This is a natural stress response and can lead to increased fear symptoms if it’s not taken care of.

When you’re under stress, your breathing patterns change as your nervous systems switch from resting to stress and back again.

You can trick your body into a state of relaxation through SQUARE BREATHING.
This is taught to soldiers going into battle to help them perform under stress.

Steps:

  1. Breathe in deeply from your belly or a count of 4 through your nose.
  2. Pause for a second.
  3. Breathe out for a count of 5 out through your mouth.
  4. Pause for a second 
  5. Breathe in for a count of 4.
  6. Pause for a second.
  7. And breathe out for another count of 5.

This is one cycle.
You MUST breathe OUT slightly LONGER than you breathe IN.

Complete 4 cycles and place your attention on your breathing. 
Feel the air filling you up and leaving you slowly. 

This will help you take control of your wandering mind and will bring your heart rate down.
When your heart-rate is lower you'll feel calmer and more in control.

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Strategy 3 - Control your mind chatter

In the aircraft up to 15,000 feet my mind started repeating “I don’t like this”. It was only a short step from “I can’t do this”. I was ready for this. I calmed it down through positive reinforcement.

Everyone has a little voice inside their head that talks to them. Unfortunately this little voice is usually switched to negative. It chatters away in the background and our body reacts to it at a biological level by releasing more stress hormones.

Your fear response is being driven by your thoughts projecting a negative future. It hasn’t happened yet, so this future is FALSE.

If you hear this happening, it’s time to take control.  Internally, tell the voice to “Shhhh”.

And now give it some reassurance with some clear instructions:

IT’S OK.
I FEEL GOOD
I’M PREPARED
I’VE GOT THIS
I CAN DO THIS
THIS IS MY TIME

Combine this strategy with square breathing and you’ll begin to feel more in control and calm before your job interview.


An interview is just another stressful event in your life when you need to focus and perform at your best.

Using these strategies won’t mean you go into an interview FEARLESS, but they will help you manage your fear to give your best performance.

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Those are 3 strategies that kept me going and ALIVE during one of the most frightening experience of my life.

In the programme I explain 3 MORE ADVANCED techniques to managing your fear response.

Don’t forget to get the FREE RESOURCE - 12 BIG Reasons People Fail Job Interviews here


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