I have to interview for new jobs. im ready to leave where i am and go make the big, big money.

i have a tendancy to be physically nervous in these situations. like kind of shaky, sweaty and fidgety. and i know i stammer a bit, and trip up over words. this usually settles down after about 5 minutes or so, and doesnt bother me in a normal day to day routines, but it always seems to happen when im first introducing myself in an interview environment.

and im sure it doesnt make a good impression.

does anyone else deal with this? what do you do to minimize it? how do you prepare for interviewing? Im just not really good at this, and i kind of dread it.

11/7/2007 12:44:33 AM

When anxiety rears its ugly head, I just beat it back down

11/7/2007 12:47:48 AM

yainorite.

I ball it up into a little wad and push it waaaaay back into the dark corner of my being.

11/7/2007 1:05:18 AM

It might seem like a pain in the ass to some, but if you really wanna get it down, practicing in itself doesn't help a lot when you're in the room with 4-12 people asking you random questions that decide your fate. Apply to jobs that will at least interview you, but you know you don't want. It's sorta like OTJ training, but it doesn't matter if you fuck up, cause you never wanted the job in the first place. You basically get free experience, and sometimes one or two people on the board could tell you what you did wrong or they didn't like. There are also seminars or classes in some places, kinda varies from place to place.

11/7/2007 1:19:58 AM

I get nervous, but I typically interview very well. For some reason, when it comes down to it, i come off as very confident and eloquent.

Interviewers sometimes ask you if you're nervous, and you just tell them you are because it's a frickin interview, they get a good laugh, and everyone loosens up a bit.

11/7/2007 1:31:34 AM

someone who has been in the military and a bunch of homeless escapades is nervous as shit?

11/7/2007 1:32:13 AM

about ten minutes before the interview I remind myself that I am a worthless arrangement of atoms in a seemingly infinite universe and that the outcome of this interview has absolutely no effect on the history of anything. I also remind myself that my interviewers are also just as worthless.

you know, pale blue dot. shit like that.

11/7/2007 1:34:21 AM

Quote :

"someone who has been in the military and a bunch of homeless escapades is nervous as shit?"

i know, its funny huh? i mean, i'm not "scared" of anything, and i don't /mentally/ feel nervous, but its like a physical reaction, and it only occurs during interviews, for maybe a couple minutes til i settle down.

and it doesnt happen in normal situations. i can (and have) confidently addressed groups of 50-100 people (i used to teach a supplemental class for a popular required weed-out 200-level engineering course).

it also doesnt /always/ occur in interviews... if i'm especially well-prepared, or if i dont give a fuck, i dont have any problems. its weird.

as for the Navy... I just worked on aircraft... i wasnt some special forces hero or anything.... and as for having been homeless in the ghettos, i was the joker, not the thug.





[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 1:52 AM. Reason : ]

11/7/2007 1:43:18 AM

You are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Don't approach it as a one sided thing. By doing this, you can steer the interview.


Most engineers aren't really skilled at interviewing, anyway, nor do they like it. They'll appreciate it if you address their concerns before they do.

11/7/2007 1:54:11 AM

Put a little captain in ya.

11/7/2007 2:03:41 AM

^^ thats good to remember.

^ hah. i wish it were that simple

11/7/2007 2:37:50 AM

I don't think about it beforehand and mostly just wing it.

11/7/2007 9:44:29 AM

Quote :

"You are interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing you. Don't approach it as a one sided thing. By doing this, you can steer the interview."

bingo....don't look at it as something to be nervous about. Go on the offensive, do some research on the company and throw in questions to them. It'll show them you did your research and take the focus off you for a while...by the end of most of the interviews i've had (the ones that went well anyway), the conversation has shifted from business to personal.

Bonus points if you can ask a business/technical question they can't answer.

11/7/2007 10:19:34 AM