7 Simple Ways To Avoid Interview Stress

Do you experience severe interview stress? This article is for you. The interviewer is buttoned-up, formal and not smiling as warmly as you would have liked. The interview chair is hard and unwelcoming, your palms and face are sweating profusely, your normal eloquence has given way to stuttering and stammering and you have begun to tremble from head to toe.

If you are one of the multitude of job seekers who begin to hyper-ventilate at the very thought of interviewing for a new position and to whom the interview is a source of unlimited stress and trepidation, the following are some basic tips to help you through your interview woes:

1. Imagine the interviewer is more stressed out than you are.

A technique favored by many to alleviate their own stress is to remind themselves that the interviewer may be more nervous and stressed out than they are, especially if he is not a seasoned HR professional and does not normally interview new candidates.

 The interviewer may not feel very comfortable assuming a role normally reserved for the HR department and may be more anxious than you are as a result.

 In this case you can shift your focus to alleviating the stress in the room and lightening the mood realizing you are both new to this role and that both sides will win by making the interview as smooth, fluid and informative as possible.

2. Imagine yourself in the interviewer's shoes

It helps to remember when sitting in the interview spotlight that the interviewer himself is a busy man with deadlines, a job and a boss to report back to.

By mentally envisioning the interviewer as a professional just like yourself who has taken time out of his busy routine to give you an opportunity to interview for the job, you can begin to empathize with the interviewer, relate to him and feel a sense of gratitude that you have made it as far as the interview stage.

Remember, getting this far is already an accomplishment and the fact that the employer has given you such a generous block of time means they are interested in your profile, abilities and qualifications.

Convince yourself that the difficult part is already over (providing you have not lied on your CV) and the interview itself is just a platform to build a rapport with the team and articulate in person what they already know from your CV.


To take this a step further, you may want to put yourself in the employer's shoes - imagine you are in full control of the interview and the aim is to deliver to the employer all the answers he needs to sell you to the rest of the team clearly and succinctly.

You can even go so far as to imagine that you already have the job and are just getting to know the interviewer as a professional colleague - this technique really works to alleviate the stress of the moment and reveal your real work persona and interpersonal skills.

3. Know your subject matter

Your subject matter is primarily yourself and your professional achievements, interests, skills and qualifications, particularly as summarized on your CV and as they relate to this particular job. The interview is not the time to start racking your brain for the answer to "How long did you work for ABC Motors" or "When did you join DEF" - you should know your employment history and CV like the back of your hand and be able to explain or expound on any aspect of it immediately.

Remember, you are the world's best expert on this subject matter and for the length of the interview you are completely in control of the subject matter, have an edge over the interviewer with this knowledge, and can deliver the relevant facts and figures with utmost confidence.

4. Read interview books

Reading interview books will give you that extra self-confidence you need to appear calm at the interview and anticipate some of the more common questions.

 By eliminating most of the 'shock' value of the interview and feeling you are armed with answers to most questions that can come your way you will feel much more relaxed, comfortable and in control of the interview.

5. Practice and prepare

Nothing beats practice and preparation for confidence building. While knowing yourself is the fundamental building block in the successful interview formula, knowing the job, the industry and the company come in a close second.

Research these areas extensively so that the next time you are seated across from the interviewer you have a detailed knowledge of what it is they are looking for, how recent market events have shaped and influenced the company in specific and industry in general and what it is about your profile that is uniquely relevant to the job in question and can directly influence the bottom line.

Once you can see yourself as a vital piece of the puzzle by virtue of the unique skills, attributes and value-added you bring to the specific role, you can tailor the answers to all interview questions accordingly.

Practice your answers bearing in mind at all times what the employer is looking for based on your research activities, and keep repeating and fine-tuning your answers till you have perfected both the content and delivery.

Ask some-one you trust to assume the role of the interviewer and aim to perfect the answers to all the common (and any anticipated uncommon) questions you are likely to come across in the interview.

6. Don't dwell on your mistakes

Remind yourself that everyone is fallible and that should you stumble or falter with a particularly difficult question, you can quickly recover. The secret is not to make a big issue out of a bad or outright wrong answer but to quickly take stock of what went wrong, regain composure, take remedial action if possible then refocus and move on to the next question. Keep a professional front at all times and don't let yourself get mired in any interview traps or potentially harmful comments you may inadvertently have made.

It helps immensely to remember that flexibility will win the day and that should you inadvertently slip, you have the wit and intelligence to make it up with well-rehearsed, honest, sincere, exemplary answers to other interview questions.

7. Smile

Laughter is the closest distance between any two people and a good smile (a close relative to laughter) can melt many a concrete professional heart. Aside from endearing you to the interviewer, showing you are pleasant and breaking the ice, a polite smile will actually make you feel happier and will lift your spirits. Aim to smile as sincerely and as often as is possible during the interview and watch how your mood and temperament lighten up and the interview takes on a more positive light.

All the very best.

Are You A Forex Trader Or A Gambler ?

You might be treating the forex market like your own personal casino right now and not even know it.

In fact, if you are like many people trading the forex market, you are probably more of a gambler than a trader.

Traders who fail at making money consistently in the market have a gamblers mindset; they do not have the professional mindset and habits that consistently profitable traders have.

How do you know if you are approaching the market like it is a casino or like it is a business?

This article will answer this question for you and it will give you some insight into how professional traders think and act, it will also discuss how price action trading can foster a professional trading mindset.
 
• Are YOU a forex gambler?

There are basically two types of people trading the forex market at any given time; people who are gambling with their money, and professional traders who treat forex trading like a business.




As you probably could guess, the gambling traders are the ones who lose money; the professional traders are the ones who make money.

In order to determine whether or not you are a gambler in the forex market, let’s discuss some of the most common characteristics of gamblers, if you are shocked at how many apply to you there is no need to worry; this article is the first step in changing your mindset from that of a gambler to that of a professional trader.

• Characteristics of gamblers…

Gamblers are addicts; they are people who do the same thing over and over just to get a euphoric “high”, even if it hurts them or loved ones.

Gamblers think of a trip to the casino as a non-professional event, they view it as a hobby, or as something to do with their free time.

Unfortunately, this “hobby” often turns into an addiction, one that can cost thousands of dollars to sustain.

 Gamblers become addicted to the “hope” of gambling, this is why they keep losing and don’t change their habits, they put more and more money into their gambling addiction, sometimes even funding it on credit.

 Gamblers believe they are always “one away” from that next big jackpot or that next lucky card, so they continue to throw more money on the table, convinced that it will all be worth it in the end, because they think they will ultimately just make back everything they have lost and much more.

Typically, what happens to most gamblers is that they lose so much money they eventually snap out of their haze and walk away much poorer, or some sort of intervention is required to wake them up to the reality of what they are doing.

 Now, we aren’t talking about a once a year trip to the casino here, we are talking about a full-fledge gambling addiction.

Unfortunately, many traders treat their forex trading activities exactly like a gambler would.

Many forex traders become addicted to the feeling of “hope”, essentially they become addicted to the feeling of getting rich or that the next “big one” is right around the corner.

This causes them to behave like they are a gambling addict in a casino; pumping increasing amounts of money into their trading accounts, risking random amounts with no money management plan, meddling in trades after they are live for no good reason, chasing the market, and a whole host of other addictive trading errors.

Traders who are addicted to trading get too much enjoyment out of it. Even when they are losing money they are thinking about ways to “make it back”, or how this is just a temporary set-back and so they immediately begin looking for another setup to trade.

 For traders who treat the market like a casino, reality becomes a thing of the past, they enter into a sick world of over-trading and over-leveraging their accounts because they are operating purely on greed and hope, all the while ignoring the true reality of the risk involved on every trade.

Gambling addicts in a casino think and act exactly like forex trading addicts do while in the comfort of their own homes, it is the habits and mindset of a professional trader that separates him or her from a forex gambler.

Let’s now discuss how a professional looks at the market and how you can begin to change your gambling mindset and habits.

• Professional forex traders…

In order to become a professional forex trader, you must begin a transition from gambler to professional, this transition will begin in your mind and it will direct you in creating a different reality which will include positive trading habits that will work to reinforce your professional trader mindset.

In order to begin thinking like a professional trader you must think about trading as a business, and just like any business you must understand there is risk involved, real risk, you must figure out a way to compensate for this risk that doesn’t involve running your costs up so high you cannot operate the business anymore.

In the mind of a professional forex trader, money management is the way to manage one’s risk.

Correctly understanding and implementing risk reward strategies is the way professional traders compensate for the risk involved in any trade, combined with a refined sense of patience when selecting trades.

Professional traders typically get very little enjoyment out of entering or exiting a trade because they encounter very few, if any, surprising moments in the market like gamblers do, this is because professional traders know what they are going to do in the market before they do it, in other words, they have a forex trading plan.

The fact that professional traders have mastered their forex trading strategy, means they don’t lose money and then seek to immediately trade to make it back, they are confident in their trading strategy and they rely on the long-term edge to recover any short-term losses.

Professional traders trade only a small basket of major currency pairs and only a few reliable setups.

 Patience and precision are the tools that a professional trader employs each time they interact with the market, in comparison, gambling traders take random shots in the dark with a very limited supply of ammo; they do this because it makes them feel good, and it gives them their trading “fix”.

• What you can do now…

Here are a few things you can begin doing immediately to begin the transition from being a gambler into thinking and acting like a professional trader:

• Be realistic about how much money you can make given the amount you have at your disposal to trade with.

Don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself and you will be far less likely to over-trade or over-leverage your account. Make sure you can sleep soundly at night with the amount of money you have at risk on a trade.

• Begin thinking about the forex market as an arena for self-improvement. Understand that the degree to which you have limited or no control over your own behavior and emotion, will be the degree to which you lose money in the market.

 The more you operate on logic and pre-emption, the more likely you are to make consistent money in the market.

You will likely notice a shift in your daily behavior and mental state in all your activities and relationships, not just with trading, when you become more emotionally controlled and self-aware.
 
• Start keeping a trading journal, record all aspects of your trades before and after you enter them.

 All businesses must track their expenses and manage their daily activities, having a tangible trading journal that you force yourself to keep up-to-date is an excellent way to keep yourself accountable and to keep your mind focused like a business person instead of a gambler.

• Model yourself after successful people…
 
Following the forex trading strategies and the mindset of a professional trader can help you greatly in making the transition from gambler to professional trader.

Professional traders are much simpler than what many beginning or gambling traders might assume; if you walked into a pro trader’s office, you would not find any complex indicator-laden trading systems.

The reasoning for this is simple; the industry hype is overrated and does not work, people sell trading systems that don’t work and that are over-complicated because they are not professional traders.

 I teach plain vanilla price action strategies to my students because it has brought me many years of stress-free profitable trading, and I know that by adopting my professional trading strategies and way of thinking, you too can become a profitable trader.


If after reading this article you KNOW that you are stuck in a cycle of gambling and trading for pleasure, then it’s time to make a shift in order to profit, after all, you cannot expect different results if you don’t change what you are doing.

If you want to learn more about successful forex trading and employing the power of simple price action strategies, please visit my Price Action Forex Trading Course page here