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Solid Resume...Not So Solid Interview Skills
I’ve lost momentum when it comes to interviewing. I can “hook and reel” with my cover letter and resume, but my interview skills haven’t been able to actually land anything. It seems to be getting worse because I’m just putting in applications for the “right now” jobs, not ones that I want to make a career out of. I would get the phone interviews and then nothing else or it would go to a second or third and then I’m ghosted. I find that I get anxious and I provide answers that are not the best or true to myself...just something that I’ve read on those interview advice boards. I sometimes draw a blank because I try to prepare myself for the common questions, but then I’m not asked those and I get thrown off.
It’s over two years. I’ve started to lose steam on the entire process.
How can I lose that anxious feeling. I just want to become financially independent/stable again.
The best advice I ever got was from a career coach in grad school: Treat the interview as a conversation!
To me, this takes so much of the pressure off. If you walk into the interview knowing who you are and what you want, you are in a position to listen and respond to the question instead of stressing out about the right or wrong answer or how to frame the answer.
Remember, the interviewer was once the interviewee and in the same boat as you, so take a minute, realize we are all human and don't be too hard on yourself if you need to re-phrase something or restate something. If they don't hire you because you do that, you probably don't want to work there anyway!
I'm in the same boat as you. Over 40 interviews in 2019 alone (and I've been interviewing since 2016!)
Practice and practice for comfort of how to answer
"tell me about yourself". After that- just 'act as if..." about the process and don't give too much weight to the outcome! Act as if you are not nervous! Act as if you have 99% of skills required, etc. Good luck! Remember that they would be lucky to snag you!
Thank you both for posting, UK in the same boat. It’s hard to always remain confident anymore as I’ve been out searching so long.