Going in for an interview - nerves

[BellaMarieOC]

Hi - long story short I've been at my current company for almost 6 years now. 3 years ago I moved back to my hometown which was 33 miles from my job. I've been commuting back and forth and it causes me a lot of anxiety, plus I feel like I can never do anything because I get home so late (lucky if I get home before 7:30). On top of the commute I feel like I have hit my ceiling here. I started out as an assistant, and I've taken on much more than that and have my title changed to Sr. Coordinator (even though I'm more like an office manager) I still have assistant duties and I HATE it. At my age I just feel like I should be past this assistant crap.

 

So I have applied for what seems like a million jobs. For a long time it seemed that the only places who called were scams. I got a call back today for an Office Manager position with a company that is 10 miles from my home. It's the first company where I wouldn't have to take a major pay cut and seems legit. After lots of debating I called back and have an interview set for this Friday.

 

I am nervous as all get out. I haven't had a job interview in over 6 years and I feel like I am so comfortable and complacent at my current position that I'm having trouble moving on and getting the courage to interview elsewhere, even though I know that for my health and future happiness I need to get away from this monster commute.

 

Can anyone provide me with any helpful hints at acing the interview? Or any tips on calming my nerves? I'm so terrified of this whole process I feel like I'm making it harder than it needs to be!

 

Thanks in advance!

[Balzac]

Firstly, big congrats!!!

 

You've thoroughly researched the company, know the names and bios of principle leaders? Current financials? Mission Statement?

This is basic stuff.

[BellaMarieOC]

Thank you

 

And that is a good idea. My BF looked them up on the Better Business Bureau and he said they were a pretty decent company. I will research the key players there before I go.

[GeorgeLohmann]

Yes, agree with Balzac.

 

And regarding getting nervous for your interview is natural. It happens with everyone. But one of most important things for any interview is confidence (not over confidence I guess).

 

So, you should go for any interview with confidence, it'll help you.

[2011]

Remember to answer the question they ask you, a lot of people seem to half-read what the person is asking and then go off on a tanget - listening skills.You can of course put small nuggets into the answer that make it sound better as long as it's more or less relevant to the situation you are describing that answers the question they asked.

 

Make up responses to the most common stumbler questions like:

 

 

• tell me about yourself
  
• How do you plan your day
  
• Describe a weakness you have
  
• Have you ever worked with a difficult person
  
• What did you not like about your last job
  
• How did you get on with your co-workers
  

 

These are high level questions where you don't really have a base to start off with. So write these types of questions down and create answer so you are primed and ready if they do ask. I got asked the one about what did you not like at your last job and really ummdd and ahhhd for about 10 secs and came up with something that soundly like I just made it up and I dug a hole for myself that I was struggling to get out of!

 

If you can ask them the format of the interview, it might be competency based, which is based on the STAR methodology. Situation, Task, Action, Result. So you use this structure to answer the question. It is based on getting you to speak about previous real-world examples so they get an idea of what you are like.

 

These questions usually start with "tell me........"

 

 

• How you plan your day
  
• How you prioritise your workload
  
• How you deal with difficult people
  
• How you deal with conflicting priorities
  

So think about how you might answer these. It pays off massively to have answers to these questions before hand as it is a nightmare to think on something within a few seconds, although some people work well this way it's still better to be prepared.

 

2011