Gaining work experience is a very important thing to do while in college, but sometimes it’s hard to make it look like you are not a total hot mess when you are going in for an interview. Even though your biggest achievement is watching Netflix for 18 hours straight and you have been wearing the same jeans for five days in a row, there’s no reason the interviewer has to know that! Here is “Trying to Get Through an Interview, As Told by “New Girl.”
1. When you first get the call to come in for the interview and you feel like you just won the lottery.
2. But then you realize you have no resume, no experience, and no car to get there.
When the “freak out” phase of preparing for an interview sets in, don’t forget you have tons of people around you to rely on. Practice answering some interview questions with your roommate, get your outfit ready the night before and ask everyone you have ever met if you can borrow their car.
3. On the day of the interview, try not to panic.
Being nervous is normal, but getting too worked up will definitely make the interview even more stressful. As long as you are prepared, the interview should go smoothly. If something unplanned happens, like you spill coffee all over yourself and now you’re running 20 minutes late, panicking is inevitable, and honestly, you should panic.
4. After a stressful start to the day, you could try to pump yourself up on the way there.
Hopefully, you make it there on time and ready for the interview. You changed out of your coffee-soaked clothes, you managed to get your act together in the car (somewhat), and you walked into the office looking professional and put together, or at least you tried.
5. The interview usually goes one of two directions at this point. You either kill it, or it kills you.
You could have the perfect answer for all the questions, leaving the interview feeling great…or you don't.
The other direction is usually where the interview takes a turn for the worst. You totally forget everything you practiced in front of the mirror and have no idea how to answer any of the questions.
“Tell me something about yourself.”
6. So you start nervously babbling and the interviewer is staring at you like…
7. And then you realize you just went on for five minutes talking about your cats.
8. At this point, you decide to play it safe and say as little as possible.
“What do you think sets you apart from other candidates?”
9. You think you are past all the difficult questions and that the worst is behind you, but then they ask you the most difficult question of them all:
“Will you be able to work on weekends?”
10. The interview is finally over and you manage to convince yourself on the way home that it went really well. You start to get your hopes up and tell everyone how you think you might get the job.
11. But then you don’t get the job and your friends ask you about it while it is still a sore subject.
Don’t get too knocked down if this happens to you, there are tons of jobs out there and maybe one day you’ll pull it together enough to make it through the interview. When you finally get the call that you got the job, you can celebrate and look back on these hard times and laugh.
