There’s no shortage of tips on how to perform better during a job interview.
Subsequently, come interview time you’re thinking more about the advice itself than how to come off as a viable candidate. To avoid this, consider natural ways to perform better in an interview. Essentially this means doing things that really have no connection to the interview process itself, but will influence your behavior in big ways.
Try these techniques and habit-changers out before your next job interview:
Get into shape:
Working out and getting fit as a result is a great way to boost your confidence. The results, when it comes to being interviewed, are obvious: the better you feel about your health and appearance, the more likely you are to perform well. In addition, employers tend to find candidates who appear to be in shape to be more attractive as members of the workforce.
Few deep breathing exercises before you step in the building will do you good – it helps in pumping in more oxygen the brain and relaxes muscle tension. If you’re in good shape you’ll naturally feel good about yourself and that’s a big deal in displaying confidence!
Avoid caffeine:
Consuming caffeine leads to increased heart rate, which in turn leads to increased anxiety and poor decision-making skills. Skip coffee and other targets of caffeine prior to an interview. If you can’t go without caffeine without getting a splitting headache, then reduce your caffeine intake slowly over time in order to prevent it having an impact on your performance during an interview.
You can take along some healthy juice or drink that you can have in-between interviews that day – in case you are required to interview or meet with a couple of teams spanning a few hours.
Eat light:
You definitely want something in your stomach prior to your interview, or else the subconscious concern for food will affect your performance. But at the same time, you want to avoid stuffing yourself full, which will cause you to become sluggish. A light meal an hour or so before your interview will give you the energy you need without compromising your effectiveness at responding to the questions of a potential employer.
Read the news:
While you wait for your interview, focus on news and other unrelated information. News in particular has a way of putting your interview in perspective. After reading about armed conflict and natural disasters, your “high stakes” interview won’t seem like such an unconquerable feat anymore. Browse through the magazines in the waiting area, it also gives a good perspective on what subscriptions appeals to the management there. What’s important here is that it just gets your nerves more relaxed – focusing on something else other that what you’ve been stressing about in the last few hours helps in easing the tension.
Interview often:
This is really the only way you can ever expect to naturally improve your interviewing skills. The more interviews you experience, the better prepared you’ll be for the next one, and ultimately the better you’ll perform. Follow every lead through to the end. Either you’ll find the job you’re looking for, or gain much-needed experience. Either way it’s a win-win.
Avoid focusing on interview tips that instruct you on how to behave and think. The result will surely be too much time spent thinking about answering questions effectively, instead of simply effectively answering the questions themselves. Commit to the aforementioned in order to be as natural as possible during the interview process. You’ll discover that being yourself goes quite a long way.