How to Handle a Job Interview from Hell in 5 Steps

Your success in getting a job can be threatened by an horrific interview panel you never expected. You might be confident but sometimes you walk into an interview where it seems the devil and his children are on the other side of the table. You would probably know this from the first question that is thrown at you that you are about to experience a Sunday steak grilling and you are the steak that someone on the panel wants to see tender and ready for consumption. What do you do?

Step 1: Sell

An interview is a selling game, you are there to sell what you have, which is you and your qualifications. If they cannot afford it or they are not a match for what you have to offer, always remember you have the right to walk away. Don’t beat yourself about the interview as if it is a must that the sell must happen. You are there to sell what you have, if it does not work out move on to the next one.

Step 2: Take your Time

It’s your interview, not their interview, you own the interview, you are the center of the show, enjoy the show. Where else in life are people going to congregate and listen to you talk, asking you questions about you. It’s your opportunity to shine and give yourself the platform to be the center of attention. So in this one , don’t rush, just be you, answer as best as you can and be as composed as you can be.

Step 3: Breathe

You are human and there is no one drawing the oxygen out of the room except for you if you panic. Breathe, take time to ensure that you are breathing properly, if there is a glass of water, by all means take a sip but not all the water.

Step 4: Look Satisfied, Sound Relaxed

Your body communicates more than you can imagine, so be in control of your body, don’t raise your voice but never be boring, be the right tone of conversation, after all that is what an interview is, it is a conversation where you are selling the best thing you know in the whole world which is you. Compose yourself, cross your legs if you have to, or hold your hands together, if you want to use gestures do not over do it. Just stay calm, look satisfied and sound relaxed.

Step 5: Answer the questions

Don’t volunteer information that you have not been asked or you might give some people ammunition. Stay to the question, if possible repeat the question as your point of introduction and repeat it in the middle of the answers and conclude with a confirmation of the questions as aligned to your answer.