Most job hunters know that confidence is an essential part of making a good impression in an interview. Take a look online and you’ll find all kinds of articles offering tips to help boost your confidence: Recite a powerful mantra! Remember past successes! Visualize the outcome you want!
You’ll also find articles to help you fake confidence. After all, the real thing can be hard to come by. Why bother if you can make yourself look confident with a little eye contact, the right suit and some vocal modulation?
Of course, it’s far more effective to walk into the interview with true, authentic confidence rather than rely on tricks that create the illusion of confidence. But how do you get there? The answer is easier than you might think.
Preparation.
Nothing is more confidence-boosting than thoughtful, thorough preparation.
Anxiety, nervousness and self-doubt come from not knowing what to expect and feeling like you could somehow mess it up. But, with preparation, these fears can be laid to rest. Your true character can shine. You can demonstrate authentic confidence in yourself because you’ve done the groundwork. You’re not just winging it.
Once you understand this fundamental truth, the question then becomes: “So, how do I prepare?” Here are five specific things you should do.
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1. Educate yourself on interview practices at the company.
The internet has made it impossible for any organization to keep their interview practices totally private. Websites like Glassdoor.com allow users to share their experiences in detail, which gives you a significant edge. Dig around a little and you may find specific questions previous interviewees have been asked. You may learn about what to expect in terms of format and timing. There’s no guarantee that you’ll have the exact same experience, but it’s still worth a little investigation.
2. Educate yourself on the different types of interviews.
There are a wide variety of interview formats, each with their own set of pros and cons. While you don’t have a say in which type of interview you get, you can prepare yourself for all of them — whether it’s a panel interview, group interview, behavioral interview, one-on-one, video conference or something else.
Based on format, you might need to switch up your approach. Take some time to learn about the common mistakes people make in each. That way, you can be sure to avoid them if and when you find yourself in that particular situation.
[See: Tips for Surviving a Career Transition.]
3. Practice your introductory statement.
Almost every interview starts with a basic request: “Tell me about yourself.” Your response to this first question will set the tone for the entire conversation. Don’t leave it up to chance! Define exactly what you want to say, construct a well-thought-out response and then practice it until it’s second nature.
To be clear, practice it out loud, preferably with another human being. If you can only practice with your dog, that’s better than nothing. But a real person will be able to give you valuable feedback. Whatever you do, don’t practice solely in your own head. There’s something important that happens when you take thoughts and craft them into audible sentences. Things that might sound good in your inner monologue completely change when spoken. You shouldn’t be hearing something come out of your mouth for the first time during the actual interview.
4. Practice telling your accomplishment stories.
Interviewers love to hear specific examples of how you’ve used your skills to positively impact organizations in the past. These are accomplishment stories, and your interview should be full of them! Even if you’re not directly asked to share a story, doing so will help give you a tremendous edge over others who are only giving generic responses. Instead of speaking in hypotheticals, you’ll be sharing tangible evidence of your abilities.
Of course, you can only do this effectively when you have a few stories top of mind. You don’t want to be digging around trying to think of one on the spot. Without some prep work, you may forget important details or find yourself going off on uninformative tangents.
Instead, come up with a handful of awesome stories that can be used to demonstrate a number of different talents. Practice telling them in a way that is succinct and still descriptive. Then, during the interview, you can seamlessly weave in a story that aligns to the topic at hand.
[See: The 8 Stages of a Winning Job Search.]
5. Practice answers to tricky questions.
With a little internet digging, you’ll find a slew of common tricky interview questions — things like, “Tell me about a time when you failed,” and “What’s your biggest weakness?” These questions shouldn’t come as a surprise and they don’t have to throw you off your game. Practice answering them clearly and concisely, in a way that demonstrates self-awareness.
Without thinking these things through ahead of time, it’s easy to come off as inauthentic as you try to “spin” your response in a positive direction. On the other hand, it’s also easy to accidentally step into the danger zone by sharing too much.
The truth is, you should answer such questions honestly and explain how you’ve used negative experiences to help stimulate growth. This kind of answer shows you’re both mature and capable of personal reflection. However, to strike the right tone, you need to give it some thought ahead of time. People who struggle with these questions are simply not prepared for them.
Remember that confidence is not a mysterious character trait that some people have and others don’t. It is a natural byproduct of preparation. When you do your part ahead of time, it will show up.
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How to Build Authentic Confidence for Job Interviews originally appeared on usnews.com
