How to Deal With Interview Nerves Like a Boss

Pre-interview nerves can be a destructive force to be reckoned with. Follow our three-step approach to dominate your pre-interview nerves like a boss.

Overcoming pre-interview nerves and not letting them derail your interview is a top concerns of interview candidates. And so it should be; pre-interview nerves can leave you sweaty, shaky and worse of all, undermine your confidence. Before we look at how to get on top of your pre-interview nerves, let’s take a quick look at what they are and where they come from so we know how to best tackle them.

When you perceive a danger or a stress (like a super important job interview), in an attempt to protect yourself, your sympathetic nervous system floods your body with adrenaline and hormones, which increase your heart rate and blood pressure and redirects blood and energy to parts of your body that require rapid action, like the heart and large muscle groups, preparing your body to fight the perceived threat or flee from it. This is really helpful if you need to take physical action – like actually fight or flee – but when you have to sit in a room and string together intelligent sentences, this generally results in sweaty palms, a high-pitched voice and brain fog – not helpful.

Here’s the good news, nerves are energy, and energy is science and the first law of thermodynamics states that, "energy cannot be lost, it can only be transferred or changed from one form to another."

So… we can’t make nervous energy disappear, but we can transfer that energy into something else and that’s where our focus should lie when dealing with pre-interview nerves. In most cases, the energy of pre-interview nerves presents in a negative or destructive form – a racing mind, butterflies in your stomach, a dry throat, and a panic that your mind will go blank. So the aim of the interview game is to transfer that energy into something productive and positive.

Transferring pre-interview nervous energy is a three-pronged approach: cognisance, control, & concealment. Essentially, know how nerves present for you, do what you can to control your nerves, and what’s left over, try and conceal.

Cognisance: Know Your Tell

‘A tell’ is a behaviour that gives your position away. And the first step in dealing with pre-interview nerves is knowing your tell. That is, knowing how nerves outwardly present for you. The key words here are ‘outwardly present’ so, what can be seen.

When we examine our nerves, it’s easy to get caught up on the internal effects of nervousness, what’s happening inside – the increased heart rate and the buzzing mind but these can’t be seen so think about what these do to you that can be seen.

Everyone’s different; Some people’s nerves present as lip biting, others present as leg tapping, while others bubble out as a nervous giggle. Some people are fast talkers when they’re nervous and some people suffer from the dreaded thousand-yard blank stare.

And your tell may not be what you think. You make think you have an obvious tell that actually goes largely unnoticed but perhaps you have a give-away tic that you’re completely unaware of. It’s worth asking a trusted friend, colleague or family member what your nervous give-away is and you might be surprised.

Every good poker player knows their tell; Knowing your tell is your greatest strength because it means you can take active measures to control and conceal it.

"the aim of the interview game is to transfer that energy into something productive and positive"

Control Measures

Once you know how your nerves manifest, it’s time to choose some ways to control, or redirect, your nervous energy and here’s a few to choose from:

Self-talk

Here’s the thing, you have an internal dialogue going all the time, whether you realise it not. You’re always talking to yourself, giving yourself feedback, criticism or praise. And your internal voice is one of the loudest and strongest you’ll ever encounter. In a high stress situation, your self-talk is either fuelling the nervous fire or calming that frenetic energy. So make sure your self-talk is positive and encouraging to help your butterflies fly in a straight line.

The effect of self-talk on performance has been studied for eons and collectively there is a clear link between positive motivational self-talk and positive performance. For some people this can be difficult though, so it’s worth thinking about what sort of pep talk you’d give to a good friend or family member and recreate that into self-talk.

And interestingly, the pronoun that you use seems to matter. A study from the University of Illinois (1) has shown that using the second-person pronoun of ‘you’, “You can do this” instead of the first-person pronoun of ‘I’, “I can do this”, is the best way to boost your chances of success. The reasoning is that using second-person pronoun triggers memories of support and encouragement that you’ve previously received and therefore is akin to receiving social support, even when there’s no one else there to cheer you on.

So set aside some time before your interview to give yourself a pep-talk.

"In a high stress situation, your self-talk is either fuelling the nervous fire or calming that frenetic energy"

Breathing

Breathing to help calm nerves isn’t just for yogis and hipsters; diaphragmatic breathing has been scientifically proven to calm nerves (2). Earlier we spoke about how the sympathetic nervous system triggers the fight or flight response in your body, well the parasympathetic nervous system controls the ‘rest & relax’ response.

Purposeful, deep breathing triggers the parasympathetic nervous system which in turn helps to physically calm the sympathetic nervous system. So take some time before your interview, even in the waiting room, to sit still and intentionally breathe long and deep to help calm your nerves.

Focusing the energy

So we know that energy can’t be lost, so one way to control it, is to focus it, or redirect it. Nervous energy tends to be ‘pingy’ and frantic, zipping all over the place. Try focussing on the task at hand to channel that frenetic energy into something productive. Rather than focusing on the possible outcome, the what-ifs and the things that can go wrong, instead focus on your actions.

Mentally rehearsing your responses - they key messages you want to get across - and any information you’ve memorised as well as any pitch that you’ve put together will help to transform those scatty, flitty butterflies into smooth synchronized gliders.

Call in reinforcements

Sometimes even the best self-talk isn’t enough to quell some people’s nerves so it might be helpful to call an uplifting friend for a pre-interview pep-talk.

Of note, if you have a particular someone in mind, it’s worth lining them up for the task beforehand. There’s nothing worse than calling a friend in your hour of need to catch them at a bad time or your call to goes straight to message bank so let them know you might be leaning on them.

Listen to something uplifting

Research has shown that music influences our attention, emotions, mood, work output, inhibitions and performance (3).

So why not use sound to help convert that nervous energy into focused attention. Try listening to music that pumps you up, an insightful podcast or a motivational speech that will help turn any negative nerves into excitement and drive!

Power up

Everyone has something that makes them feel like a boss. A power suit, a certain shade of lipstick, that statement tie, that piece of jewellery, that cologne. Whatever it is, bring it. Anything that helps you step into that confident persona will help you channel those nerves into focussed energy.

Reframe it

Yep, this is your dream job, and you really want to work for this organisation, but the flip side is that they’re spending their time and energy searching for the ideal candidate. They want that to be you. They want the glass slipper to fit your foot. Everyone’s on your side, so relax and have the conversation, because an interview is just a conversation and you have conversations every day. You’ve got this.

Acknowledge your ‘Why’

Recognising the reason for your nerves can make nerves productive. Consider why you’re nervous. Most likely it’s because you want this. Why do you want this? Most likely because you’re passionate about this role. Tap into that excitement and you’ll move from nervous to nerdy which is a great platform to share your knowledge, interest and zeal from.

Now that you have some strategies to convert that wild nervous energy into productive energy, let’s have a look at how to deal with what’s left over.

"Knowing your tell is your greatest strength because it means you can take active measures to control and conceal it".

Concealment

No matter how much effort you put into controlling your nerves, chances are there’ll still be some residual nerves hanging around. So, the next step is to conceal, or hide, those nerves.

Whatever your nervous tell is, figure out a way to conceal, or at least minimise it.

If you’re a finger strummer, hold a pen to occupy your hands.
If you’re a leg jiggler, cross your legs to make movement more difficult.
If you talk too quickly when you’re nervous, deliberately slow your speech down and pause between each point (and no, you’re really not talking as slowly as it feels)
If shaky hands is your downfall, avoid holding loose pieces of paper (they’ll shake like a leaf and give you away) and instead hold something solid like a pen or intentionally hold your hands in your lap.
If you avoid eye contact, make it your mission to note the eye colour of each of the panel members.
If a shaky voice is what gives you away, try ‘box breathing’ or another vocal exercise right before the interview.

You get the point, whatever your tell is, have a strategy in place to detract from it.

Using these strategies will make you the magician of your nervous system. But there is one last white rabbit you can pull out of your hat – honesty - acknowledge your nerves. A lot of people say, ‘never admit that you’re nervous!’ but let’s be real here, the interviewers know you’re nervous. It’s not a massive, shameful secret. Granted, they probably don’t know exactly how nervous you are but if you’re truly nervous they’ll at least know you’re a bit nervous.

Admitting to your nerves shows vulnerability and as awkward as vulnerability may be, it shows that you’re human and at the end of the day, employers want to employ people, not bots, so showing some human-ness is a good thing. Saying something like, “I’m a little bit nervous but I’m so excited to be here,’ helps to break the ice and acknowledge the elephant in the room so that you can move past your nerves and get on with the task at hand.

And remember, showing that you’re a little bit nervous isn’t a bad thing, it shows that you want the job. In the attitude game, nervous wins over nonchalant. Nervous can be perceived as keen and willing to please while nonchalant can come across as arrogant.

So in summary:

Be the master of your interview nerves by using cognisance, control and concealment.

Be Cognisant

Know how nerves outwardly present for you.
Ask a trusted friend, colleague or family member what your nervous behaviours are.

Control Your Nerves

Use encouraging self-talk in the second person to calm your nerves.
Use deep, purposeful breathing before the interview to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system to calm the ‘fight or flight’ response.
Focus your nervous energy productively by rehearsing your key messages and pitch.
Call an uplifting friend for a pre-interview pep-talk.
Listen to something uplifting to convert nervous energy into focussed energy.
Wear something that makes you feel confident.
Reframe your thinking by remembering that the organisation is searching for the ideal employee and they want that to be you.
Remember why you want this job to help tap into your inner nerd, ready to dazzle the panel with your knowledge and zeal.

Conceal What's Left

Develop a counter strategy to minimise the appearance of each nervous tell.

And lastly, remember that nerves are a normal part of a job interview and know that everyone else that’s going for the job is nervous too, so everyone’s teetering on that same springboard. Channel that nervous energy into interview performance gold and use that springboard to catapult yourself above your competitors.

Want more interview tips & advice and place to ask questions? Follow our Facebook page - Get That Job

(1) Dolcos, S. and Albarracin, D., 2014. The inner speech of behavioral regulation: Intentions and task performance strengthen when you talk to yourself as a You. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(6), pp.636-642. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2048

(2) This Is Why Deep Breathing Makes You Feel so Chill. (2021, September 1). Right as Rain by UW Medicine. https://rightasrain.uwmedicine...

(3) Effect of music tempo on exercise performance and heart rate among young adults. (2017). PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...