There exists various phobias in the world: claustrophobia, acrophobia, entomophobia, etc. However, there is one fear that is not officially coined as a phobia but scares the hearts of just about everyone at some point in their lives: the dreadful interview. The fear of an interview is well justified; after all, it very well determines whether you obtain the job of your dreams or you miss out on the chance of the lifetime. Recognizing this significance, countless amounts of methods now exist to help people to ace that potentially life-altering interview.
There are such a plethora of websites and blogs that provide these strategies where it is prevalent to run across the same old approach: dress well, research the company, etc. However, based on personal experience and stories of consistent failures in individual interviews, several unprecedented, unheard of tips still exist. The following are two of these unknowns that people should know for an interview to ensure an even greater chance of success.
1. Look at the eyelids, not the eyes
Let's get the elephant out of the room: eye-contact takes quite an effort. Intently staring into the eyes of the interviewer as he/she talks for seconds or even minutes is often extremely uncomfortable. Research shows that eye-contact can lead certain people to feel subconsciously vulnerable and self-conscious. Having this thought on the back of the mind, it then can likely lead to making a mistake.
To avoid such a situation but still have consistent eye contact, look at the area between the eyes and the eyebrows occasionally. It does not sound like an alternative to eye contact at first, but after testing it myself and having tested it amongst various people, this method gives people the same impression as someone who looks directly at the eye. More importantly, the interviewee can be less stressed at the notion of not having to make constant eye contact and processing that subconsciously jittery thought.
2. Have consistent pitch to your answers
Another tip that many suggest with an interview is to rehearse answers with typical interview questions such as, "Describe yourself" and "What is your biggest strength?" While this strategy is still important, many people tend to forget one aspect when rehearsing: pitch variation. Pitch is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, way to express emotions about the subject at hand. For an interview, the pitch must be present to express one crucial attribute: passion.
Depending on what the question is, pitch helps portray this passion, thus providing the interviewer the notion that you genuinely want the job out of the sincerity of your heart. For other questions, pitch serves as a remedy to not sound rehearsed and to, quite frankly, not seem boring. While interviewers certainly care strongly about what you say in the interview, interviewers are going to be bored or care little throughout moments. To truly captivate the interviewer, the pitch will help enhance the responses from a long-winded, "I have heard this before" response to a much more interesting answer.
Again, the most common methods of succeeding in an interview still and should continue to remain as the ones people should keep in mind. However, people should also keep in mind the two strategies listed above, as they are tried and tested methods that I personally alongside other people experimented with and found consistent success. Combining these two new, fresh tips with the currently existing ones, you will see yourself doing even better in interviews, and before you know it, you will find yourself leaving the interview room knowing you left everything on the table with no regrets.
