If you think your job interviews are stressful, consider this
➔ Your palms are sweaty. Perspiration forms on your brow. Your mouth gets pasty. You may even be shaking somewhat. For some people their voices go up an octave. Your mind is racing. And that’s just the beginning.
Welcome to the job interview. Scientists have studied many aspects of our lives and job interviews typically rank among life’s most stressful events. Take heart however. Those same studies show that losing a job is more stressful. In one respect, the worst part is behind you.
The rest of the story
That probably won’t lessen the stress that you’ll feel going into your next interview however. Although there is something that may help ease your pain. As stressful as the job interview is for you, there actually may be more pressure on your interviewer.
Think about it. No matter how well or how poorly you perform in that interview, you’re no worse off than you were before. You still don’t have a job. No one is going to put a black mark on your permanent record card if you botch an interview. You simply go home, try to assess where you fell short, and do what you have to do to overcome those shortcomings the next time around.
But your interviewer is in a totally different situation. Dismissing you may not be a problem for him. But ultimately he has to hire the right person, the best candidate for the job. If not, in the end that will be counted against him.
Why? Because replacing someone can be very expensive for the organization. And the higher up the job ladder you go, the more expensive it is. For a middle management position, according to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), it may cost a company somewhere around $20-30,000 to search for, hire and train a new employee.
If you screw up the interview, you get to go home, lick your wounds and fight another day. When interviewers screw up, they have to live with their mistakes. So, who’s under more pressure?
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