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You just picked up your good suit at the cleaner's;
it's as wrinkle-free as a Beverly Hills housewife's new face. Your dress
shoes are gleaming; you've got them so well shined. Your watchband
matches your belt, and your hair is perfectly coiffed. Take a look in
the mirror: You're ready for that interview.
Or are you? Notice those beads of sweat racing down
your temples? Feel that catch at the back of your throat? Those things
are there to tell you you're nervous. Which can be a fine thing.
Nervousness can make you concentrate harder, after all. It can hone your
senses and improve your mental agility.
Nervousness becomes problematic only when it crosses
an invisible line and starts diminishing rather than enhancing your
performance. If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed by the pressures
of the job search-you're irritable, say, or can't concentrate, or find
yourself getting tired for no good reason-then sorry, you're not ready
for that interview.
One good way to overcome pre-interview nervousness,
of course, is to spend time preparing. Check out the website of the
company you're interviewing with; canvass newspapers and magazines for
relevant articles; speak with any contacts you have who can help you get
a better understanding of the company; look into the various WetFeet.com
products that might help you out.
font class="text" But what if you've already done your homework? What
if you know more about the company than the CEO, but are still nervous
going into your interview? The answer: Your nervousness is the result of
caring too much. It's blasphemous for me to say this, of course. After
all, according to most career gurus, the job search is a matter of life
and death, a sacred ritual requiring precisely the correct chants,
ablutions, and offerings. If the job search is not approached with the
utmost seriousness, then, surely, the job seeker will . . .
Will what? Be condemned to heck for all eternity? Be
turned into a frog?
As far as I can tell, the only result of approaching
your job search less seriously is that it can suddenly become a whole
lot more fun. The job search is not a life and death matter. Putting on
your helmet and picking up your rifle and marching into battle-that's a
life and death matter. So is contracting the Ebola virus. Those are
things that merit real nervousness-not a lousy interview.
I'm not saying you should slack in your job search,
or once you get your new job. What I am saying is that it's possible to
be passionate, eager, willing to learn, and responsible-all without
taking career matters too seriously.
Start by trying to give yourself some perspective.
Take a step back and try to see the big picture. So what if you flail in
your interview? If you don't get that dream job? It's not going to
matter a whit to the future of homo sapiens. And after you get over the
initial shock that accompanies failure, it's probably not going to
matter much to you, either. You're going to wake up the day after the
interview. You're going to eat your meals, and play your games, and feel
the ache of new crushes, and live your life.
You're going to continue your job search. If you're
smart, of course, you'll have learned something from your failure. Like,
how you should never talk about your addiction to bungee jumping in an
insurance-company interview. Not getting that job won't be a crushing
memory.
font class="text" If you're lucky, caring less about the job search
won't just ease your pre-interview jitters-it'll also give you a new
full-time perspective. You'll approach each interview the way interviews
are meant to be approached: as an equal partner taking part in an
exchange of information-not as a supplicant pleading for his life with
the Career Executioner.
If you're really lucky, caring less about the job
search will prevent you from being lemming-like in your career
choices-from blindly choosing jobs just because all the cool kids are
choosing them, too-and leave you free to pursue the career you truly
want. But that's a subject for another column.
So, then. Go back to your mirror. Look yourself in
the eye. Say, "I don't care whether I get this job."
Now you're ready for that interview. |
