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How to get through a stressful interview

Interviews are different. Somewhere you are kindly asked about achievements in previous places of work, somewhere you are offered to complete a test task, and in some places they may supposedly accidentally knock over a glass of water on your new suit ... The last option is nothing more than a stressful interview. What is it and how to get through it?

The main thing is to know the rules of the game
In a new business suit, armed with recommendations from former bosses and tuned in for a constructive conversation, you go for an interview. Vigorous and positive, you arrive at the office five minutes before the meeting, however the HR manager for some reason suggests you wait a bit, and not in the meeting room, but in the corridor, where there’s nowhere to sit down. After five minutes of waiting, your positive attitude is replaced by a slight impatience, after ten - by a completely understandable irritation. Finally - in less than half an hour - a recruiter appears. In the negotiating recruitment manager, not apologizing for being late, ironically asks you: why are you looking for a job? Maybe you were fired from the previous place for incompetence? No children - are you afraid of responsibility? And so on...

No matter how great your desire is to slam the door and leave, you should not rush, especially if you came to the company of your dreams. Most likely, you got into a stressful interview, the purpose of which is to determine how the applicant behaves in unusual situations, how he reacts to surprises and psychological pressure, how much he controls himself. To pass such a test is generally simple, you just need to know the rules of the game.

Who could be in a stress interview?
The attitude towards stress interviews today is ambiguous, both among applicants and among recruiters. Someone with understanding refers to the need to assess the stress resistance of the candidate, and someone believes that in the arsenal of the selection manager there are enough other methods and there is no need to play on the self-esteem of the applicant.

Who has a great chance of getting into a stress interview? First of all, representatives of those professions that often find themselves in stressful and unusual situations. These are customer service managers, sellers, reporters, PR managers, complaints and complaints managers, executives, direct sales managers, etc. The recruiter evaluates how a potential company representative (that is, an applicant) will behave in difficult conditions, for example, if faced with rudeness on the part of the client.

Calm, and only calm!
So, at the interview you hear ironic notes in the recruiter’s voice (“We’ll see what you can brag about”), open doubts about your competence (“Say, do you have a lot of experience? We saw and experienced”) or unpleasant assumptions about your personal qualities ( "Why are you still not married? Do not get along with people?"). It is quite possible that you will be asked to fill out the questionnaire again on five sheets, because a glass of water is “accidentally” thrown over your eyes in the previous copy ... How do you respond to such statements?

The main secret to success in a stress interview is calm. Questions can be very diverse and unexpected, but the line of your behavior should be equally even. Answer carefully and with dignity, no need to be rude and throw a folder with your portfolio into the recruiter.

They ask why you were fired from your previous job. Quietly explain that you left the company on your own initiative, faced with the impossibility of further professional growth. Wondering if your plans include taking your own boss? Say that you don’t want to hack anyone, but in the future you hope for career growth. In a word, demonstrate self-confidence in every possible way.

If the recruiter is persistently and not too tactfully interested in your personal circumstances or family affairs, do not shout nervously: “This does not concern you!” Answer directly, but without unnecessary details: “Yes, divorced. But this is unlikely to prevent me from working diligently. ”

The boundaries of the reasonable
Of course, in some companies during the stress interview they also use completely wild methods from the perspective of the applicant: they propose immediately, here, changing the hairstyle to match the image of the company or overturning a cup of coffee on a bright suit of a candidate ... Where is the line that distinguishes a completely scientific a technique from ordinary rudeness?

The answer is simple: you install it yourself. So if you are not ready to dye your hair red only because “the uniform of the company goes red”, say firmly no. And in general, think: do you need a job in a company that selects personnel using such strange methods?

Once you read this article, you are already warned about the possibility of getting into a stress interview. And, as you know, warned - means armed. Think over your weak points, tune in a calm mood. Remember that the recruiter is not a rude person, but a specialist psychologist who determines your readiness for stressful situations. Think of a stressful interview as a role-playing game with certain rules, as a ceremony of initiation before a new life stage, and then the path to the work of your dreams will be free.

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