What comes to mind when you think about the word “interview”?
Do you see yourself sitting in a cold, metal chair (in a dark room, naturally) with a spotlight on your face?
Do you see a close-up of your forehead, a bead of sweat forming against your hairline, and those annoying little baby hairs frizzing up or your socks becoming soaked like they always do during gym class?
Can you feel your armpits heating up, your hands dampening, your legs trembling and your mouth drying up?
You are not alone in this. A recent study by Harris Interactive found that 92 percent of adults in the United States have anxiety about job interviews. And that’s adults — they’re supposed to be the calm ones, right?
There is a biological reason that we get nervous for job interviews. You aren’t abnormal or strange; it is in your blood. According to Dr. Tamar Chansky, author of Freeing Yourself From Anxiety, interviewing can feel a lot like getting attacked by a wild animal. He explains, “When we perceive that we are in a high stakes situation, the brain doesn’t distinguish the high stakes of a job interview — where it would help to be calm, cool and collected — from the high stakes of being under threat from attack (say, from a tiger).”
Basically, you can blame your intense nervousness on your brain.
While you won’t be able to get rid of every nervous cell in your body, you can get rid of most of them by understanding what is going to happen and by preparing yourself.
This book is going to explain everything you need to know about interviewing, from finding the job you want to following up afterward.
Let’s get started.