[olug] interview

[Bill Brush]

Well in my experience (and this applies to men as well as women)
nervousness, apprehension, fear, etc are blatantly obvious.  This is not a
Good Thing(tm) for the interview, generally.  If it's a entry level
position doing IT scutwork then I'm not concerned if the person isn't
confident in their abilities.  If it's a position of responsibility or
high-stress, or requires experience then it will definitely impact my
recommendation to my boss.

I do make allowances in our environment because we conduct some of the most
stressful interviews I've ever heard of.  In general we'll have between 4
and 5 people all interviewing the same candidate at the same time, just
taking turns asking questions.  That is extremely stressful.  But if one
person is calm, cool, and collected under the barrage, and one person is
folding under the pressure, well that is going to be a factor for me.

Now that being said there are ways to calm your apprehension and make it
not so overwhelming.

   Instill in yourself the belief that "They'd be lucky to have me work for
   them".
   Imagine the interviewer in their underwear.  No one is intimindating in
   their tighty-whites. (Guys should not do this for interviewers of the
   opposite sex)  :-)

There are other things you can do, in extreme cases you could talk to your
doctor about your apprehension, maybe he can prescribe something along the
lines of valium for the interview.

The biggest thing is you have to have confidence your abilities and you
have to project that confidence non-verbally.  Make eye contact, keep your
head up,  answer questions in a clear voice, have good posture, and just in
general radiate "I believe in my myself".  If you can't believe in yourself
then why should your potential employer?

Good luck in the job search.  There are a lot of applicants out there for a
few positions, but but most people don't present themselves well.  My
comment on this last batch of resume's I went through was "This is the
sorriest lot of candidates we've had in a long time".

As far as dress goes, I'd never go to a professional interview without a
suit.

Bill


olug-bounces at olug.org wrote on 03/03/2004 04:44:15 PM:

> Does anyone have interview tips specifically for women looking for real
> hardcore tech jobs (sys or software engineering?) I get nervous and come
> across as not confident too much, I think.
>