Message #49679

[countrigal]

To help get over your nervousness, you may check around and see if anyone in your area is offering sessions on getting jobs.  Most of these that I've seen are free and include practice interviewing, where one person is the 'employer' and one the 'interviewee' and then you switch roles.  If you can't find anything like this, get with a friend and have them ask those difficult questions.  Go into it like it was real... get gussied up, bring your portfolio, etc, whatever it takes to make it seem as real to you as possible.  This gets your nervousness up closer to what it would be in reality and helps you address all that in these practice sessions.  Go over interview question possibilities and what your answers would be, so that you have ideas in mind for these questions already and don't have to try to think on the spur of the moment.  Also write out questions that you want to ask them, which makes you in a more powerful-feeling position and can help with the nerves too.  If you don't feel that you really look the part you're wanting, get someone to help you put together an outfit for interviewing.  I have one suit that I wear, because I feel professional and powerful in it, and I know that I look the part that I want.  My husband helped me pick it out, as he's great with fashion, but a good friend that dresses smartly would be just as helpful.  And it doesn't have to be anything that costs a lot.  Hit the sales racks, put something together from your closet, or combine with what you have and only 1 or 2 other pieces to mix-and-match for any weather contingencies.  The main idea is that the more you practice, the more you do it, the more confident you'll feel and present yourself.  And practice sessions count towards that confident feeling, so make use of them.  I had interviewed several times but didn't feel the comfort level in interviewing that I have now until after I had attended a training our HR office gave.  We use Performance Based Interviewing technique in our in-house interviews, and it seems to be a standard for our area, so I decided to attend the training that taught you what it was, what it meant to you as an interviewee, and how to prepare for these interviews.  And then we had some practice sessions.  After that, I felt much more confident going into an interview.  I've also started asking what type of interview process they use (free-lance, PBI, etc) when they call to schedule the interview if it's from somewhere outside of my company, which allows me to better prepare for that specific type of interview.  (For those who say they don't know, I go prepared for the general free-lance type that we're all used to, but ensure that I have the documents and other information on hand to support me if it's PBI, and my answers can go to either.)

As the other posters said, they wouldn't be interviewing you if they weren't impressed and thought you might fit with them, so go in with that confidence and go from there.  Good luck!  And as always, if you find you need a pick-me-up, a confidence boost, or ideas on typical questions and responses, just let us know.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator