What is one of the top reasons why people fail at cracking interviews? It’s not your lack of skills or knowledge, it’s not your shortage of experience, and it’s not your educational/cultural background. While these factors may contribute, one of the top reasons why people fail at interviews is because of interview anxiety. 

Imagine yourself sitting in a room or in a Zoom Meeting. Imagine your hands shivering and your words fumbling. You prepared well for the interview. You know how to answer their ‘tricky’ questions. You have watched thousands of videos on Youtube and reels on Instagram. Yet, when it comes to an actual interview, you can’t perform. 

Why Does Interview Anxiety Happen? 

Why does the interview process feel like a scene out of a horror movie? Some reasons are Performance pressure, not enough experience in giving interviews, focusing on ‘learning’ your answers rather than building your confidence, not knowing how to use your strengths, not enough exposure to spoken English, fear of failure and rejection, and more.

Is it possible to get over these hurdles and become excellent at cracking interviews? Of course. Even if you are someone from a Non-English Medium background, you can still do it. 

5 Helpful Ways To Master Interview Anxiety 

1. Know your strengths & how to present them 

Do you have ‘fast learner’, ‘great communication skills’, and ‘team worker’ listed in your resume as your strengths? Are these really your biggest strengths? Maybe, maybe not. Do you know how to use your real strengths as ‘Chanakya Niti’ in an interview? Maybe you are best at video gaming or cooking but can you list them as your strengths? No, but here’s what you can do– If you are a great gamer, you could be great at complex problem-solving. You could have the excellent focus needed to bring tasks to completion. If you are great at cooking, maybe you are a great multi-tasker. Why not use your real-life skills and portray them in an original manner? This will give you confidence in presenting the REAL YOU!

1. Listen with curiosity 

Most of us are really anxious in the interviews because we want to give great answers and we fear we will not be able to. We focus too much on performance rather than taking it as an experience. Remember, an interview is supposed to be a two-way conversation! How can you stop obsessing over your performance? Listen with curiosity, show genuine interest in what they are asking you, ask questions if something is not clear, take a couple of seconds to think about what they have asked and THEN answer. 

1. Do you memorize all your answers before an interview? Stop that

Do you feel that you need to have a perfectly memorized bio to be able to perform well in your job interview? You are wrong. This trick doesn’t work in the long term. Sometimes, it even makes things worse because you spend time stammering if you forget your answer. Stop doing that. Try to become more and more natural with your interview experience and that only comes from practice. We will talk more about interview practice in our upcoming points. 

1. Assume that they are interested in knowing about you 

Sometimes, candidates forget that they are not the only ones who need the job, the interviewer also needs a good candidate. Talk about things that can be useful for the interviewer to know. If you have worked on any interesting projects, share your experience. If you keep seeing the interviewer as some authority figure sitting there to kill your confidence, that is what is going to happen. Assume that they are keen to know about your value addition to their organization. This will bring you some ease and help you charm them!

1. Are you giving Mock Interviews? Start NOW  

It is an undeniable fact that the more interviews you give, the better you get. But what if you don’t have a lot of experience in giving interviews? Or what if you are a complete fresher? In these cases, you should try to give as many mock interviews as possible. A good mock interview will give you a proper experience of what kind of questions you can expect, what kind of challenges you can face, & how you can identify your weaknesses and improve. This is by far the most effective way to beat your interview anxiety and overcome the fear of failure. 

At Tuitly, we conduct thorough mock interviews followed by feedback sessions for our students who want to improve their interview skills. Teaching practical skills is our priority. If you are looking for an excellent and understanding Spoken English Trainer to help you, feel free to contact us TODAY!