5 Ways To Overcome Interview Jitters

Congrats, you’ve been selected for an interview! This message brings with it a mix of relief, excitement, and anxiety. While nervousness before a job interview is a universal feeling, it can be particularly crippling for immigrants in Canada. From feeling insecure about your work experience to dealing with language and social barriers, every fear you may have comes bubbling to the top at the very hint of an impending interview.

So, how do you tackle your nerves and take on the interview with confidence? How do you leave your interviewer with a lasting impression? Let’s find out!

1. Let Your Body Language Do The Talking: Mastering body language can reflect your professionalism and eagerness to contribute to the Canadian workforce. Before you may even speak, your body language can divulge a lot of information about you to your interviewer. ‘Open body language’ reflects confidence, enthusiasm, and engagement. For example, smiling and maintaining eye contact conveys trustworthiness, while fidgeting shows you feel out of place and uneasy. So, evaluate your body language in the days leading up to your interview and practice some open body language gestures. Don’t forget to nod and smile to show attentiveness!

2. Project Confidence & Positivity: Even if you have to fake it till you make it, projecting confidence and a positive attitude is key to leaving a memorable impression. Confidence can show up in many ways. For starters, a confident person speaks slowly and clearly, delivers a well-practiced introduction, and may even take some notes during the conversation.

Conversely, some who is underconfident may fumble and speak too fast, delivers a wavering monologue, and may often forget to mention crucial achievements. The answer to this dilemma: Practice your speaking points well to appear confident! Despite language barriers or lack of local experience, demonstrating confidence and resilience can highlight your potential to prospective employers.

3. Watch Your Fillers & Stay Focused: We get it. Its difficult to be perfectly in control of what you say during a high-pressure situation like an interview. However, using too many filler words can dilute the importance of your answers. One way to avoid falling into the filler word trap is to consistently record your speech. Listen to these recordings and polish your answers until you have minimized filler words. Pause and breathe after every sentence to bring intentionality to your words.

4. Structure your answers with STAR: Crafting your answers to the STAR formula can help you give clear and focused answers, instead of long rambles. This is an interview technique that offers a clear structure for storytelling by presenting the situation, task, action, and result.

· Situation: Paint the picture and provide essential context of your scenario.

· Task: Outline your role and responsibilities in that specific situation.

· Action: Detail the steps you took to address the issue.

· Result: Illustrate the outcomes achieved from your actions.

By incorporating these elements into your story, you can deliver a concise and engaging response, offering the interviewer a short and believable narrative of your achievements.

5. Be Memorable & Authentic: An interview is a conversation, so it’s okay to give glimpses of your personality. This may be through a witty remark, a personal story, shared interest, or even your demeanor. Think of uncommon and interesting questions you could ask your interviewer. And at the end of it all, make sure to write a personalized note to thank your interviewer for their time.

Pro Tips For Newcomers in Canada:

· Always show up well-researched about the company and also your interviewer if you know them beforehand

· Network within your industry and leverage your connections through groups such as Immigrant Networks.

· Gain insider insights into the interviewing process with our monthly Interview SOS sessions featuring organizational psychologist and coach Anna Garleff Coaching

We, as a community of immigrants dedicated to supporting fellow newcomers, prioritize creating a secure environment where professionals can come together and interact. Join us by signing up at www.immigrantnetworks.com and gaining access to our exclusive WhatsApp group, where you can arrange personalized one-on-one sessions with our Ambassadors for mock interviews, LinkedIn profile reviews, and so much more. Please be aware that this group is exclusively for users with Canadian cell phone numbers.

· So, what are you waiting for?

· Let's navigate this journey together!

· Networking to get working! ??

?Written & Edited by: Safa Faheem