Job interviews are often stressful situations by their very nature. In most cases, as candidates for a position, we don’t go there simply to test the waters and get information from a company we find interesting, but even before it starts we think about possible alternative futures if we are accepted. In other words, they are contexts that we perceive as if each of them could radically change the course of our lives.

Now then… how do you control your nerves in a job interview? Although we cannot completely control our degrees of anxiety and stress, it is possible to influence them indirectly to make them lower.

Nerves in a job interview: what to do and how to control them

The expectations that we create for ourselves in job interviews make our nervous system go into a state of alert when the time comes to enter the office where the recruiters will evaluate us. Unconsciously, we try to be aware of everything that is going on around us to maximize our chances of success.

Clearly, a certain level of nervousness is a good thing, because it leads us to think about something that is important to us and thus makes it more likely that we will not leave anything out when it comes to planning how we deal with that issue. However, if the level of stress and anxiety is very high, it is also more likely that we will get stuck trying to answer many things at once. Or that, in general, we give the image of not being prepared to face a challenge .

The latter is particularly relevant in the case of job interviews, where the superficial and more “automatic” assessment of people counts for quite a lot as a mechanism for discarding candidates. The idea that if we are too weak and imperfect when interviewed by Human Resources recruiters makes us feel more nervous, so that the perfect breeding ground for the self-fulfilling prophecy appears. Believing that we can be too anxious makes anxiety levels rise.

That’s why fighting nerves at a job interview is a challenge, since not only do we have to present our application in the most appealing way possible, but we also have to try not to get our emotions too involved… which is somewhat more difficult if we don’t have many job offers to choose from.
Having said that, and taking into account that each case is unique, let’s see what are the strategies we can adopt to cushion the effects of stress .

1. Sleep well

Although it may seem counterintuitive, not getting enough sleep makes us more likely to feel nervous and uneasy about situations in which we feel that we are not in control . Yes, for most of the day we are sleepy and everything in us seems to work more slowly, but when situations arise that demand a lot from us, we feel less prepared to face them. As a result, our entire nervous system invests more energy in staying generally alert, even if that leads us to be more vague about each specific task to be performed.

So something as simple as getting a good, regular night’s sleep is one way to reduce the chances of being too nervous at a job interview.

2. Don’t fantasize

There are many people who tend to fantasize a lot about imagining the best possible future from a key milestone, which in this case may be the job interview itself. This is stimulating, but it also makes us prone to obsess over a selection process that does not have to be so decisive, nor does it have to require so much attention and care from us to pass through it satisfactorily .

In this case, the fear of frustration is what drives us to do everything possible to make that ideal life we have imagined a reality. In order to prevent this type of problem, we have to try to be realistic and combine the illusion of a potential new job with the fact that we have to take into account the more than probable imperfections of the position we aspire to cover.

3. Prepare for the interview

Obviously, the better prepared we are for the interview, the more likely it is that we will feel prepared to go through this stage of the selection process ourselves, leaving a good taste in the mouths of the interviewers.

Therefore, the ideal is to make a list of objective needs that must be covered in order to be able to go to the interview, , ordering them by priority and importance , and to fulfill them before the indicated day arrives. For example: buying suitable clothing if we do not already have it, having thought about what we will say when we are asked why we are interested in the position, knowing how to get to the offices where the interviews are held, doing some research on the company that has the vacancies, etc.

4. Salt with time

Leaving with plenty of time to go to the job interview is highly recommended to control your nerves, since allows you not to sweat or get tired and, with it, to go through the unpleasant experience of arriving at the office looking exhausted and unkempt. In addition, this will allow us to make the following advice.

5. Do relaxation exercises

If possible, do relaxation exercises in the waiting room. They should be very simple and basic, focusing on breathing and muscle relaxation , as you obviously cannot do things like lying on the floor or adopting strange postures. This way, just before you introduce yourself to the HR staff, your stress levels will be lower.