During an interview with a potential employer, it is best to behave confidently
Psychologists believe that moderate stress allows one to mobilize and show higher results at important events. However, if anxiety is too strong and thoughts of meeting a potential employer cause panic, it will be difficult to leave an adequate impression.
To ensure the interview goes well and nervousness does not prevent you from showing your best side, you can prepare for the meeting with a potential employer in advance. Special attention should be paid to psychological preparation. Individual recommendations on this issue can be found on the website of professional psychologist Elena Mitina.
What You Need to Know About an Interview
As a rule, the first interview in a company is conducted by a HR manager, who is rarely a specialist in the field for which they are hiring. However, at the beginning of working on a vacancy, they necessarily consult with the manager to whom they are hiring an employee, create a job profile, and find out what professional knowledge the candidate should possess.
The purpose of the first meeting with a candidate is to form a general impression of the person, their personal qualities, and the alignment of their experience with the responsibilities of the vacant position. Thus, there is no need to worry that the recruiter will not be able to assess professional qualities. Their task is to find not only a specialist but also an employee who will fit organically into the team.
The HR manager wants to find a specialist no less than the job candidate wants to find their job. Sometimes it may seem that the employees conducting interviews are too strict and picky, but the company's management requires them to work efficiently and effectively. An indicator of quality is not only the speed of filling a vacancy but also how successful the new employee will be and whether they will stay after the probation period.
One should not perceive an employer's refusal as a personal insult, psychologists advise. As a rule, such refusals allow a person to avoid stress and failure in an unsuitable workplace in a psychologically uncomfortable team.
Often, the behavior of a HR manager during an interview may seem strange. Some company representatives are overly strict, not very courteous, or even aggressive, provoke conflict, and ask uncomfortable questions. It is important to remember that such behavior, no matter how unpleasant it may seem, is part of the candidate evaluation.
The stress interview technique is rarely used in its pure form, but the recruiter may well use some of its elements. This primarily applies to hiring for positions associated with high levels of stress. The opposite situation may also occur: the company employee may be overly liberal, switch to informal address, and immediately try to establish informal contact. Such behavior should also be treated with caution. In any case, it is correct to maintain a friendly but businesslike tone of communication and not give in to provocations.
How Not to Get Flustered at an Interview
It is worth thinking through answers to the most common questions in advance. Of course, company employees will be interested in work experience, responsibilities in previous positions, the company's market position, level of subordination, etc. It is worth spending time to structure this information and present it concisely – clear, to-the-point answers always make a good impression and relieve nervousness.
It is important to remember that the HR manager understands the applicant's work much less than the applicant does, which means the advantage in a business conversation is clearly on the side of the job seeker. If a company representative invited a candidate for an interview, it means they were interested in the resume and do not intend to "fail" the potential employee.
Confidence in passing interviews comes with experience – each subsequent interview is easier than the previous one, so meetings with representatives of the most interesting and promising companies for employment should not be scheduled at the very beginning of the job search.
The HR manager understands that an interview is stressful for a candidate, so there is no need to worry about your nervousness. Psychologists recommend "allowing" yourself to be nervous; you can even admit it to the interviewer. This not only relieves excess tension but also demonstrates openness, which is always valuable for constructive dialogue.
Still, it must be understood that if the position involves communicating with many strangers, stress, and constant evaluation situations, the inability to cope with nervousness can be a serious obstacle to getting the job.
The most important rule of psychological preparation for an interview (and for job hunting in general) is to remember that an interesting job will definitely be found, and even the most successful candidates receive rejections from companies.