Carolyn Hax: How to manage severe job-interview anxiety
Oh no, don’t be angry at you. You aren’t doing this to yourself on purpose — and you don’t stay angry at people who do things to you that are clearly by accident, do you?I'll give you the start of an answer, by advising you to find a career coach or useful friend who can give you some mock interviews. Practice makes calm. Consider talking to your doctor about your anxiety, too, to see if treatment makes sense.
· My local community college has a whole department for helping their students and community members. You can do practice interviews, get help with your résumé, network, do aptitude testing.· Reach out to the bombed interviewer: “That didn’t go as well as I would have hoped. Would like to clear up my reply on the question of X/Y. Thanks for your time, it’s a very interesting position and I’d appreciate being able to flex my skills in Z.
· Interviews were pure agony, until the time I realized I didn’t want to work for the person interviewing me. He was not pleasant. I felt a shift in the balance of power and I relaxed. Now I have internalized that I am interviewing the employer as much as they are interviewing me.· I wear black to avoid having to be concerned about visible sweat stains.