Shauna Moerke is…

Easily the most intimidating aspect of job hunting, there are a lot of rational and irrational things to be afraid of when it comes to interviews. There you are, about to meet with people whose opinion of you directly impacts your future and financial stability. Is it any big surprise that interviews make you feel tense, stressed, worried, and fearful? I mean, think of all the things that can go wrong?

– You get lost.
– You are late.
– You forget the name of the person you are meeting with (Happened to me).
– You forget your resume/documents/portfolio.
– It’s raining and you trip and fall into a puddle (Also happened to me, luckily after the interview though).
– You completely blank on an easy question.
– Zombies break into the room and there isn’t a shotgun or cricket bat in sight (Well, maybe not this one but you never know).
– You say something stupid or they don’t laugh at your jokes.
– You get sick.
– You forget to turn your cell phone off.
– You have a “wardrobe malfunction”.

And so on and so forth. Are you hyperventilating yet? Deep breaths. Deep. Breaths. It’s okay. Interviews may be fear inducing but there is a lot you can learn from your fears. If your fears are rational, such as you are afraid you’ll get lost, you can easily overcome them through preparation and planning. Practice your interview skills with someone, do a practice drive to the company to make sure you know the way, pick out your outfit the night before, etc. Feel better? Of course you do. The important thing is to not let your fears overcome or paralyze you. Use those twinges of fear as the push behind taking the steps needed to ensure your success instead of letting fear hold you back. Soon, you won’t face interviews with fear, you’ll face them with confidence. And that will make all the difference.

But what about the zombies? All I can say is, you better be vigilant. Zombie attacks can and do happen unexpectedly. Personally, I recommend reading The Zombie Survival Guide. You will never enter a building or room again without first assessing it’s defensibility against a zombie horde. Like I said, preparation is everything.