Confidence in your Career

It’s the night before your big interview with that dream company. Butterflies in your stomach? Finding it hard to eat or sleep? Sweaty palms and a racing heart? These are all common and normal physical manifestations of nerves and anxiety that many experience before important events such as job interviews. Confidence is something many struggle with, not only in their personal life but in their work life as well. Lack of confidence can affect how you perceive and present yourself and in turn how others perceive and receive you. It is well known that first impressions are important, and it has been argued that people form opinions about us within the first few moments of meeting. The same can be said for job interviews. One way in which to ensure the first impression you give in an interview is a memorable one is to learn how to boost your confidence and how to appear confidence even if you don’t feel it! Practice is the cornerstone to success and fortunately confidence can be learnt and practiced. Confidence should not be thought of as something you either have or you don’t, something you are born with or you are not but rather a skill that can be learnt and shaped! There are many techniques that can be taught and adopted in order to improve your self-confidence: 1. Cut the negative self-talk! 2. Maintain eye contact – This will ensure you come across as confident and assured. 3. Smile! This will help to relax you AND the interviewer. 4. Talk slowly – This will help you to formulate your ideas more clearly and help you feel more sure of yourself. These are just a few examples of active techniques you can practice in order to boost your confidence and help you nail that interview. AvatarJo is a great service that offers live online interview practice so that you can learn how to build and improve your confidence before having your real job interview. The skill of developing your confidence is not something that will just benefit you in that all-important job interview but for the whole of your academic career and personal life so start practicing now!