Preparation is important. If you’re walking into a meeting it’s good to have got yourself in the frame of mind for that meeting. Get your mind set.

Ewan McGregor

The Royal Air Force maxim, ‘Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance’ is the correct attitude when it comes to shining in a job interview. The very fact that you have been invited to interview tells you that your CV has intrigued them. Your challenge during the interview is to confirm the stunning impression that you made on paper.

Just as you put effort and thought into your CV, you must put effort and thought into the interview itself. The purpose of your preparation is to ensure that you are clear on what you want to communicate. When you prepare in the right way you can relax and pay attention to the room.

This is the secret to a great interview.

You need to get to a place where you are able to focus your attention on your interviewers, rather than worrying about everything from the polish on your shoes to the details of your CV.

 

Bill Nighy talked to me for my Star Qualities book about the skills he has learned over the years, from both sides of the table, to help you succeed at interview:

Don’t expect the muse to strike. You have to have a plan. It’s the only way. Having been on the other side of the fence you can tell who’s done any preparation. You’d be amazed by how many people don’t prepare. They don’t do it because it gives them a way of failing. They think, ‘If I’d prepared I’d have got it.’ It gives them a way out.

Self-consciousness can be paralysing. Moments where you’re thinking, ‘Christ, what did you do that for? You’ve put your hand in your pocket – now what are you going to do with the other hand?’

You’v e got to get through the door, take the hand out of the pocket, they’re all looking at you. ‘I can’t take the hand out of the pocket because they’re all looking at me.’ Of course they’re all looking at you!

Knowing how to be still can get you out of a tight spot. Everyone ought to have the ability not to be humiliated. That won’t get you a career.

What I had to do was dare myself out of it, to do things I hadn’t planned to do, take my hand out of my pocket. Anything to break the rigour of that self-consciousness.

Remember everyone feels the same . . . the eyes of the other person aren’t really saying, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened to you?’ Remember that there are people on the other side of the table terrified of getting it wrong. I was taught a great principle for an interview, which is: turn up and see what you can do to help.

Then you have a job, to look at how you can help. It gives you an objective which is not about careerism or greed, or how not to be humiliated. Also don’t smoke. Don’t drink coffee. Coffee’s not a friend to performance, it’s an enemy. Don’t go out till three o’clock the night before. And remember, if you’re tired, don’t panic. Even if you’re completely exhausted, and haven’t been able to sleep, you can still do it. Sometimes it works best – there’s no bulls**t. Keep your answers short, and avoid the tendency to say too much. Don’t be frightened of the pause. Let the interviewers fill sentences; you can shut up. Keep it about the work. Keep it professional.

Take heed of Bill’s advice. Make sure that you prepare thoroughly because it’s a lifeline in the scary world of the interview.

Ewan McGregor also shared with me the cost of not preparing for a meeting. He tells the nerve-racking story of going up, as a young actor, for Sense and Sensibility, which Emma Thompson had written and was starring in. He learned the hard way that preparation is crucial. ‘It should go down in the shameful annals of history for being the worst prepared meeting ever. And as I was stumbling through, I was thinking to myself, “Just let me go. When I’ve finished let me go.” They were being really polite, and in my head I was thinking, “We all know I haven’t done enough work on it.” Shameful really. So, I think preparation’s really key.’

Avoidance is a popular, if self-sabotaging strategy for nervous interviewees. If the fear of interview makes you go into head-in-the-sand mode then the first step of your planning process must be to adjust your thinking from avoidance to activity.

Bill’s question, ‘How can I help?’ is a great way to help you do this. It’s a technique described in neuroscience as ‘cognitive reappraisal’. Quite simply, you think about your thinking. If you’ve spent time turning your interviewers into a beast of nightmarish proportions, then realizing that they are actually terrified of getting it wrong makes them seem human again.

Suddenly the interview doesn’t seem half as daunting anymore and you start to feel happier to prepare for it. In looking at the situation a different way you don’t change the situation, but you make it easier to deal with.

So next time you’re called to an interview think ‘How Can I Help?’ and notice how your mindset will shift.