How to calm interview nerves
How to calm interview nerves, from mock interview practice the week before to the morning of, the first question and video or recorded interviews.
6 min readFor anyone with a job interview coming up1 drill
You have a job interview coming up and your stomach turns whenever you think about it. Maybe you're worried about going blank on a question, talking too fast or your voice wobbling on the first hello. Interview nerves are normal, and they tend to be strongest for the jobs you want most.
Most of what makes an interview frightening can be practised before the day. This guide covers the week before, the morning of, the questions in the room and the video and recorded interviews many employers now use.
Why do interviews make you so nervous?
In an interview you're being judged by people you've never met, on questions you haven't seen, about yourself. Something you care about rides on the next hour, so your body treats it as a threat and releases adrenaline. Your heart races and your thoughts speed up. It's the same rush as stage fright before a talk.
Talking about yourself adds to it. Many people find describing their own achievements awkward, as if it were boasting, so they play them down or ramble. A little preparation fixes most of that, because you're no longer inventing your answers under pressure.
The week before: interview practice that helps
Practise your answers out loud
Reading your notes in your head feels like preparation, but it skips the part that goes wrong on the day, which is saying the words. Out loud you find the answers that ramble and the sentences you can't finish. Aim for most answers to run around one to two minutes. Start with the questions that come up almost everywhere: tell me about yourself, why do you want this job, tell me about a time you handled something difficult, and what questions do you have for us.
Do a mock interview
A mock interview is the closest thing to the real one. Give a friend a list of ten questions, ask them to mix up the order and slip in one you haven't seen. If nobody's free, record yourself answering on your phone and watch it back. You'll see what an interviewer sees, which is usually calmer than you felt.
Prepare five or six stories
Most "tell me about a time" questions can be answered from a small set of stories. Pick five or six from your work or studies: something that went well, a mistake you put right, a disagreement you handled, a time you led others, something you learned fast and a result you're proud of. Give each one a simple shape. Many people use the STAR method (situation, task, action, result). Spend most of the time on what you did, and end on what happened.
Research the company and the role
Read the job description line by line and match each requirement to one of your stories. Look at the company's website and recent news, then write two or three questions to ask them at the end.
Practise this now
Hear how your answers sound.
Record a minute, watch it back and get one thing to try next.
Rehearse your first minuteThe morning of the interview
How to handle interview nerves in the room
Know your first answer well
The first question is very often "tell me about yourself" or "talk me through your CV". Know your answer well enough that it comes out even with your heart racing. Keep it to about a minute: where you are now, what you've done that fits this role and why you want it. Once that answer is out, the nerves usually settle.
Pause before you answer
Let the interviewer finish, then take a breath before you start. Two or three seconds feels long to you and sounds thoughtful to them. Nerves speed most people up, so speak a little slower than feels natural. If you tend to fill the gaps with um, our guide on how to stop saying um has a simple drill.
It's fine to say "let me think"
"That's a good question, let me think for a moment" is a perfectly normal thing to say, as long as you then take the moment in silence. If your mind goes blank, ask them to repeat the question or check what they mean. Unexpected questions are a kind of off-the-cuff speaking, and our guide to impromptu speaking has a short structure for answering on the spot.
Video interviews and recorded interviews
On a video call, look into the camera when you're talking and at the screen when you're listening. Moving the interviewer's window to the top of your screen, just under the camera, makes this easier. Raise your laptop so the camera is at eye level, sit facing a window or lamp rather than with one behind you, and test your link, microphone and headphones the day before.
Recorded interviews, sometimes called one-way interviews, can feel stranger. A question appears, you get a short time to think and then you answer to the camera with nobody on the other end. Use the thinking time to choose your story and your first sentence. Talk to the lens as if it were a person, and don't feel you have to fill every second. Finishing a little early is fine.
The best preparation for either is talking to a camera before the day. A 60-second rehearsal in Stagefright is close to the real thing: the coach looks at your pace, pauses and filler words, and on video it checks your eye contact and posture too.
Is it OK to say you're nervous in an interview?
Yes, if you keep it short. A light line near the start, such as "I'll admit I'm a little nervous, because I'd really like this job", is honest and often puts the interviewer on your side. They've met plenty of nervous candidates and they generally want you to do well. Say it once, then move on. Apologising again and again makes the nerves the subject of the interview.
When it's more than interview nerves
If worry about interviews is stopping you applying for jobs, or it's affecting your sleep or health for days beforehand, talk to your GP. In the UK, NHS talking therapies offer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for anxiety, and in England you can refer yourself.
Every interview you do makes the next one more familiar, including the ones that don't lead to a job. Practising out loud gets you some of that familiarity before the real thing.
