Tomás Santa Cecilia offers us the keys to give 100% in a job interview.
In them, a few minutes can make a difference, making our lives change significantly depending on where we end up exercising (or how long we are unemployed).
That is why, among other things, for many people doing well in these interviews becomes very important. And the truth is that it is useful to be interested in the strategies that help improve our job prospects, because they are really able to shift the balance towards the possibility of being selected by the Human Resources team.
In this articlewe will see a series of tips on how to face a job interview successfully, explained from the point of view of a psychologist expert in the keys to communication andregulation of anxiety.
How to face a job interview to go well?
These are key ideas to properly prepare for a job interview. You must bear in mind that many of them require some practice because theory is not enough, and all of them require a commitment to invest a minimum of time and effort:the simple fact of reading them does not change anything .
1. Create a calendar for yourself
First of all, the fundamental thing is to be clear about the time we have to prepare for the job interview. For this, it is important that you organize a schedule in an agenda, and that in it you write down several of the actions that we will see below.
What is the point of doing this? The key is to give yourself incentives to commit to this interview preparation process, minimizing the chances that you will miss things or do them in a hurry and poorly, which could cause you to fail by a domino effect (by not being able to perform one task, this can interfere with the completion of the others, creating a bottleneck). Do not rely only on your willpower: exercise it through concrete and constant actions that allow you to progress.
2. Control your stress levels
Normally, people become obsessed with not being too anxious during the job interview. It is true that being very insecure and vulnerable in these candidate evaluation sessions can make the image we offer not very professional, but there is another aspect that is just as or more important than this: controlling anxiety before the interview. And not only hours before, but it is even a matter of taking measures days before the appointment.
The reason is that, if we do not control it, anxiety can cause us to postpone indefinitely the moments in which we do not prepare the interview, so that when it comes time to stop by the offices of the company we do it more unprotected and with reasons to feel discomfort.
Underduring the days of preparing for the interview, prevent anxiety from playing tricks on youtag. Some simple tricks to achieve this are not drinking more than one cup of coffee a day (in the morning), doing aerobic exercise (for example, going for a short run, at low intensity), sleeping enough hours and keeping an organized schedule of foods.
If you do things right, the chances that you will feel very anxious in the interview will be very low. If you are a person with a tendency to have anxiety problems, you could consider preparing some relaxation strategies for yourself to put into practice in the waiting room, just before the interview: for example, controlled breathing techniques to ensure that your brain is well oxygenated.
3. Learn about the company
It is essential to know where you aspire to start working, for two reasonstag. On the one hand, because of the obvious benefits that this information provides when preparing for the interview and adapting the content of the ideas that we will prepare to say. On the other hand, because it is very important to show interest in the type of work that you aspire to do in the vacant position, as well as in the organizational environment in which it takes place. Which brings us to the next tip on how to face a job interview successfully.
4. Prepare your questions
This is one of the few moments you know will occur in almost any job interview, so you can afford to prepare yourself knowing that you will be able to do it just as you have thought.
Prepare about three questions, trying that not all of them can be answered with a monosyllable and that show that you are interested not only in the technical aspects, but also in learning about the organization’s work philosophy (yes, without going too far with the level of abstraction of your doubts).
5. Anticipate well the time you need to get to the offices
If your job interview is face-to-face, make sure you are very clear about the time you need to arrivetag. If necessary, check the distances with satellite images. Also, leave with time to arrive about 10 minutes before the time, to avoid problems and that you have to run (which would trigger your stress levels and worsen your performance in the interview).
6. Look into the eyes
It is very important that no matter how nervous you feel, you do not interrupt eye contactfor a long time with the interviewers. On the other hand, becoming obsessed with always looking them in the eye is also counterproductive, because it will lead you to behave in an unspontaneous way. Simply pay attention to know if you have not looked into the eyes for many seconds in a row, and look in the direction of the faces of your interlocutors: your gaze will automatically move towards theirs.
It has been proven that the fact of following a conversation looking into the other person’s eyes activates parts of the brain related to empathy and the processing of emotions, and that is why it is important that you do it, since you will achieve that same effect on the other person: a closer and potentially favorable treatment.
7. Don’t use “closed” non-verbal language
Postures and gestures that consist of keeping your extremities very close to your vertical axis (for example, with your arms crossed or with your hands clasped in front of you) create a barrier between you and the interviewers, something that generates a slightly more intimate relationship. distant and defensive. Avoid it .
Bibliographic references
- Byrne, To.; Byrne, D.G. (1993). The effect of exercise on depression, anxiety and other mood states: A review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 37(6): pp. 565 – 574.
- Jiang, J.; Borowiak, K.; Tudge, L.; Otto, C.; von Kriegstein, K. (2017). Neural mechanisms of eye contact when listening to another person talking. 12(2): pp. 319 – 328.
- Staner, L. (2003). Sleep and anxiety disorders. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 5(3): pp. 249 – 258.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.
