Everyone sweats the interview. First, because it happens so infrequently, it’s a skill that is not honed. Second, because there’s a great deal of performance anxiety that can arise when the promise of a successful performance means a new job with potential financial gain as well as increased daily growth and enjoyment.
Showing up in 100% confidence in an interview is essential because confidence translates to competence, which is basically the thing your interviewer is trying to ascertain – “can you do this job well”?
Knowing that you’ll need to show up confidently, there is a strategy that will help you adopt the best mindset to draw on your inner bad-ass and convince the interviewer that you’re the best candidate for the job.
Firstly, think about a time you felt really good about your performance at work. In all likelihood, it was a situation in which you were leaning into your strengths, right? Just as confidence translates to competence, the reciprocal is also true. When we lean into our strengths and demonstrate competence, it increases our sense of self-worth and the brain receives a reward response which releases a feeling of confidence.
In an interview situation, the secret to displaying confidence is to prime your brain with visions of you deploying your strengths. Make a list of your top three strengths and then queue up specific examples of when you’ve deployed these strengths which led to impactful results.
As an example, one of my top strengths is creative problem-solving. I have a knack for connecting dots by threading a story through the data points, creating a big picture vision and finding a solution for any problem. This skill has enabled me to build a roadmap for successful projects and initiatives, all aligned to an organization’s strategy. When I think about innovative problem solving and creative visioning, I genuinely get excited and feel great about my abilities. Feeling excited and confident carries an energetic resonance which is picked up by people, especially interviewers. Therefore, you want to ensure the emotion you’re emitting in an interview is confidence.
To put this technique into practice, before your next interview, list your top three strengths as well as specific examples of when using those strengths resulted in favorable outcomes. The more specific you can be, the better. Then, rehearse saying the three strengths and examples out load a few times on your way to the interview to positively prime your brain. Also, make sure you can nail the three most commonly asked interview questions. Download the short guide here. Good luck!
