By Ron Venckus – Chief Behavioral Interview Consultant at SC&C
Edited by Fred Coon – Chairman, CEO
Stewart, Cooper & Coon
It has been said that interviews are stressful. One reason is that you don’t know what you will be asked when you are interviewed. Here are a few possible causes.
- lack confidence
- lack of knowledge of what you are facing
- lack of preparation
- uncertainty about what happens if you fail
None of these exist, unless you let them exist! As Fred Coon often tells his clients, “Worry about those things over which you have control and don’t worry about those things over which you don’t”. You must take control over all of the things you can control. When you do this, your stress will subside measurably.
Preparation is the best medicine to significantly reduce your lack of confidence. In the case of interview situation, if you have researched the company with which you are to interview, you have studied their job description, you have made sure that you know what “every” word means on your resume and you know what every word on the job description means, AND you have practiced telling your success stories as to how you accomplished all of the successes in your career, then you will have done nearly everything you can do to ensure your interview success.
Remember, each word on your resume gives the interviewer a point from which they can ask a potential question. Each question for which you do not have a success story will increase your stress. Conversely, each question for which you do have a story will reduce your stress. Every word on the job description means something to the company that hires you. Therefore, your job is to understand the words, both those on the job description and those on your resume. Your challenge is to share a variety of your stories with each interviewer you encounter. Then, the stories you tell them must be based upon your experiences, successes, quantifiable results and the behaviors that you used to drive those successes. When you do this, you will check at the door any uncertainty about your competency or ability to show them that you can really perform. Your stress will mostly dissipate at this point.
Overcoming your lack of confidence is mostly solved by simply being prepared. You can do nothing about the number of other candidates, nothing about who is interviewing you, and nothing about most of the extraneous factors in the interview. However, you CAN do something about your own knowledge and preparation. You are the only person in control of that.
Either you see the glass as half empty glass or half full. If you see the question you are presented with as affording you the opportunity for a successful outcome, then you see the glass as half full, On the other hand, you could see the glass half empty and when the question is asked and cannot be answered properly, it becomes a reinforcing factor in your lack of success, which, in turn, reinforces the “I’m not OK” routine you are operating under, which continues to generate more stress in your life.
Whichever route you choose will depend upon your attitude and point of view about life. The approach you take will absolutely contribute to your success or failure in each interview you are granted. In my experience, stress is reduced to easily manageable levels by being prepared and seeking opportunities, rather than justifying why things are not working for you. That negative cycle of thinking feeds upon itself and will only lead to further stress and failure.