How Your Brain Works During a Job Interview

Interviews are stressful. There is no doubt about that. They can be even more stressful if you interview for an inspiring role for a company you admire. You put a lot of time and effort into the entire job application process and thoroughly prepare for your interview. You learn and research as much as you can about the company and its key people. 

Finally, the DAY has come. You want to make the best impression and land your dream job. Your CV is filled with excellent credentials and exceptional working history. Still, you know that the hiring manager will also be looking at the other attributes and skills during the interview, such as confidence, communication, and the ability to think quickly under pressure.

You are in the hot seat in front of the hiring manager, and suddenly you start worrying about what can go wrong. You might like to think you're entirely in control of the situation, but your brain can be sneaky sometimes. Your muscles, including those around your vocal cords, tense up. Your voice may tremble, your hands may shake. Your thoughts start a race, you may be starting to lose focus, your heart rate increases.

Have you ever felt like this?

A job interview can be a nerve-racking experience. Even if you have gone on a lot of them, job interviews can be challenging. The high level of stress and anxiety around the interview can make life difficult.

A lot is going on inside your head; your brain and its complex processes are even manipulating your emotions.

So how stress affects the brain and your capacity to function at your best? 

The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. This organ, weighing about three pounds on average, is the seat of intelligence, interpreter of senses, initiator of body movements, and behavior controller.

Stress is an animal instinct. It comes into play when your brain reacts to being threatened: a physical threat (for example aches and pains), or an emotional threat such as psychosocial stress.  

In stress events, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.  

Adrenaline elevates your blood pressure, increases your heart rate, and enhances energy supplies. 

Cortisol (the primary stress hormone), elevates sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose, and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues.

Your body reacts instantly, which is referred to as the "stress response". Your brain goes through a cycle of reactions to protect you from potential threats. Some reactions are good, and some reactions are bad.  

Scientists have named the two forms of stress: eustress (less talked about, positive experience of stress) and distress (commonly known as negative stress). 

The positive stress – Eustress 

Eustress is the type of stress when we feel very excited. For example, going on a first date, getting a job offer, starting your first year at university, getting a promotion, starting a new job. It's a positive feeling of excitement. Eustress doesn't necessarily always feel good (you can feel the adrenaline), but in reality, it's good for you. 

Eustress drives you to achieve better things. Positive stress encourages positive growth, and it helps to develop resilience. It can indicate a challenge and can be manifested in different areas, such as moving a house, life change such as getting married, traveling to a foreign country. 

During positive stress, your brain becomes more alert, and your senses heighten. This situation is designed to give you a burst of energy, increase your focus and help you to escape from "danger".  

During the job interview, the positive stress helps you sharpen your mind and focus. Positive stress can help you focus, not only during the job interview but also in different situations such as public speaking, closing a business deal, or sports competition.  

The positive stress encourages you to dive into experiencing new careers and pushes you to new heights. 

The negative stress – Distress 

The negative stress can be short or long-term. Different people will have different reactions to a particular situation. However, a list of stressors that are frequently experienced as negative includes for example:  

Unemployment, sleep problems, injury, illness, legal issues, bankruptcy, being abused or neglected, conflict in interpersonal relationships, losing contact with loved ones, divorce.

The build-up of negative stress, chronic and persistent negative stress, can have long-term consequences leading to many adverse health problems.  

During chronic stress, the body creates an excessive amount of cortisol which can have an opposite effect than the positive stress, leaving you extremely tired and unable to focus. It can also lead to performance decrease, physical effects such as headaches, chest pains, or weight gain amongst others, or can cause anxiety. High levels of cortisol during chronic stress can also lead to deterioration of the part of the brain associated with learning and memory. Consequently, as a result of chronic stress, some people struggle to remember new information.

Chronic stress can commonly be seen in the workplace. Employees can develop chronic stress over time. For example, excessive job demands and workloads, job insecurity, conflicts with colleagues or supervisors, employees not being managed properly or not being recognized for the efforts, lack of training necessary for the job. 

Conclusion

Not all stress is bad for you. With the right mindset, negative stress can be turned into positive stress.

By developing and changing your mindset, you can turn your stress around by seeing the situation as a challenge and opportunity for growth. 

Let's use the situation of a job loss as an example. If you change your mindset, you can turn your stress around the job loss by seeing the situation as a challenge and opportunity for discovering new horizons and possibilities. Transform job loss into a job hunt. Accept it as a new challenge. It can help use coping skills to deal actively with the problem or calm down your stressed emotions. 

Remember that positive stress helps you to grow. Consider leaning into eustress and fight the challenge. 

However, it's critical to remember that longer-term stress can lead to mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety. If you're experiencing build-up stress, anxiety, or depression, the sooner you recognize the problem and take steps to address it, the easier it will be to get on top of it. If you need help, you must seek advice early. Talk to your GP. Facing problems earlier on can help prevent these from escalating at a later date.  

Renata Junkova | Career Coach

I am truly passionate about helping ambitious professionals and senior executives achieve their career fulfillment and success.

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