Interview nerves consuming me

LegacyUser

Hi I've just finished college my chosen career area is quite niche and I lack experience although my academic qualifications are above and beyond what I would need to get a foot in the door for an interview.

My problem is I get really bad interview nerves its gotten so bad that in the past I've needed alcohol and anti-anxiety pills before an interview. Without the pills I'd start to shake and the words don't come out fluently. However with the pills I'm a bit spaced out and still nervous enough that I don't answer questions fully. I don't take any alcohol anymore before interviews as I recognise that this is foolish. I'm very upset because I'm coming across very badly and selling myself short. As I said my chosen area is very niche so once you get an interview you have to make it count. I have had panic attacks in the past but I chose to stop taking daily medication because it was making me far too drowsy and I need to get up in the mornings and get on with things and during my studies I didn't find myself in any pressurised situations until now.

Thoughts feelings welcome...

golden gal

I think you need to refocus your mind while entering an interview. Think like this; An interview is based on you and your strenghts. How well do you know yourself? What is good about you? They WANT to hire YOU thats why you have the interview!!! Just think what is positive about you? You are qualified,thats a start! Turn negatives into positves like if they ask what is your weakness say "Well once I start something I cant finish it until I know I've completed really well."
Hope this helps!!

dingding

If you are getting interviews with just your academic qualifications you should have a realistic chance of been successful. Managers are busy and generally shortlist to just the candidates that they think are suitable.

From interviewing myself, I would look beyond interview nerves. And I would look to see what the candidate could bring to the job and the organisation.

As Golden Gal said, they would not interview you unless they felt on paper that you could do the job.

It might be worth doing one of the free myers briggs personality tests available on the internet and reading around the profiles. This should give you some positive points that you could bring to bear on the interviews.

Best of luck and if I can be of any help feel free to PM me.

Ghost Train

is there any particular aspect of the interview that makes you feel uncomfortable, you really need to be relaxed and feel good about yourself in an interview so do anything you can to get yourself in the right mood, dress comfortably, give yourself loads of time, be happy and friendly.

You say lack of experience is what the problem is, there are a few ways to deal with that, focus on transferable skills, anything from general life skills, skills from other jobs, skills used on college projects etc show how you can apply these to the job youre going for.Is there any sort of training course you could do that would give you a bit of the basic experience you'd need to start in the jobs youre going for?

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the advice greatly appreciated. Some feed back I got from an interviewer before was that I didn't appear to be motivated enough. Most of their questions revolved around team work and I haven't much experience working in a team, I suppose I'll have to try and talk up other areas and times when I worked on my own initiative and focus on transferable skills as eolhc said.

LegacyUser

A good tip to reduce nerves is for you to make a presentation about why you should be selected as the successful candidate. Make about 6 slides, basically extracting the information from your CV, and including some information you feel relevant to the position. It also allows you to volunteer information that the interviewer might be precluded from asking, info you have no problem volunteering.

Having done that, get someone you trust to make your presentation to. Present your case, and present it again. Practise and practise. During the interview, tell the panel you have this presentation. Present it to them, then leave them a copy.

that evening, when they are reviewing the candidates, they will have your presentation in front of them to remind them of you.


And, Good Luck.

CrazyNoob

I'd say prepare for each interview.

Have a practice with a friend or family member, write out specific answers on paper with your strenghts - its like trainning for the real event and will make it easier - the more you do the easier they are.

Remember interviewers generally ask generic questions in parts of the interview

Also I'd suggest you do a short interview prep course - loads of these available - think they cost around 200 euro

AARRRGH

Lots of excellent advice already.

I would second most of it, but in particular I think the interview prep idea would really work for you. Just seach for "practice interview" in Google and you'll find loads of companies offering this service. The money you spend on this, even if it costs you a grand, will be paid back many times over when you get the job you want.