How to Handle Stress in an Interview

An interview is a door for a perfect job that opens only when you use the right key. There are several factors which contribute in making the right key for success. One of them is handling stress. Stress can be defined as the mounting of pressure and the development of a thought of the inability to handle a situation or to make a decision. Stress can ruin any positive situation, especially interviews.

Handling stress is one of the hot topics in the field of business and management, where a stress-free mind is required to make opportune decisions. The same applies to interviews where answering questions without getting stressed is important to secure the job. The basic understanding that most people miss out on is that stress is psychological at the beginning. Prolonged stress can result in heart related problems.

One has to understand that an interviewer will opt for a calm and composed person for any job. This person should be able to work in situations of pressure and deadlines. To test the candidate's ability in this aspect, some stress related questions are introduced in the interview.

Following are the points to be remembered to handle stress in an interview.

Be confident in yourself :

You have been called for the interview because the company finds your skills to be more relevant to the job profile. Be confident, as your education and experience will help with the answering. Some interviewers may also put forward some questions that are out of your work area. This is to make you feel that you may not know the answer to this question and get stressed. Remember not to give a wrong answer to this question.

Preparation :

Dedicate 3 to 4 days in preparing for the interview. Less preparation may lead to wrong answers, which in turn makes the interviewer introduce a stress question. Excess preparation can also end up with undesirable results.

Body language :

It is important to use a positive body language in an interview. Proper movement of hands during explanations can ease out pressure and increase confidence. Attire is a key factor in increasing confidence in the candidate and creating a positive impression on the interviewer.

Talk more

Keep yourself busy in answering questions or talking in the interview. Staying silent for a long time could make your throat run dry and you could feel stressed. Frequent talking also helps the interviewer understand you better. Silence alienates you from the interview.

Tricky questions

Make sure that you are not caught in tricky questions. One common trick is to make you bad-mouth your boss. Be aware of some common tricky questions in interviews.

Some stress question techniques are listed below.

Repeating the same question.

Provoking questions like 'why were you fired?'

Disagreeing with your answers even if they are correct, like 'do you think it is the right answer?'

Increasing your stress level by the question, 'how do you rate your interview performance till now?'

Introducing puzzles.

One has to understand that the final aim is to get the job and not lose the opportunity by getting stressed out. Smiling is the best way to ease out stress.