There’s nothing quite like the mind-numbing panic that sets in before a big job interview. As you wait outside the room, you quickly rehearse everything you want to say, but as you go through your mental checklist, a million other thoughts begin flying into your head: does my hair look OK? Am I dressed appropriately? How firmly should I shake their hands? Why won’t my knee stop bouncing? Did I drink too much coffee this morning? Why am I the right fit for this job again? 

By the time the door opens and you’re ushered into the room, your hands are clammy, your heart is pounding, and your mind is filled with a thousand pestering thoughts. As you sit down and begin the interview, even the simplest of questions can leave you feeling frozen – after all, with so many thoughts racing through your mind, it can be almost impossible to come up with the answer you want to give – no matter how well rehearsed you might be.

We spoke to Alison Blackler, the founder of 2 Minds and a career coach who specialises in mindset techniques, to find out how the ‘clean mind setup’ can help you enter the interview room with a calm mind. 

“My mind went blank”

According to Blackler, mental ‘freezing’ is extremely common in interviews. And it’s not a symptom of being unprepared for the content of an interview; instead, it usually happens when we don’t know how to prepare the mind for the interview process.

“Going into an interview overthinking, trying to second guess what you will be asked and being overly worried will affect your focus,” she tells us. “This will trigger the mind to be busy – thoughts will often be negative and emotions often high.”

When we get into this kind of thought pattern, our minds and bodies can go into fight-or-flight mode and freeze up. “Often these thoughts can feel like an emotional threat and this stops us from being focused,” she explains. “You can often experience the ‘my mind went blank’ [sensation] if we don’t prepare the mind.”

That’s why finding a mental technique that works for you is so important when going into a job interview.

“When we find techniques to relax and work on any negative unhelpful thoughts beforehand, then we will be able to think straight, come up with quality answers and be present in the interview room,” Blackler says. “Making sure you feel grounded is a good technique and helps you manage the situation.”

The ‘clean mind setup’

While practising techniques like meditation or breathwork may help you to calm a racing, panicked mind before an interview, according to Blackler, the ‘clean mind setup’ technique is a useful alternative that’s all about visualising how you want to come across throughout the interview – and how you need to be for that to happen.

“Often we know what we are going to do and we prepare and plan for the activity,” she explains. “But we generally don’t pause to think about how we need to be so it goes as we want.”

The technique involves asking yourself three questions: 

How do I want this interview to go? 

Begin by visualising the ideal interview. How are you acting? How are you sitting? For most people, you’ll imagine the best version of yourself: poised, calm, receptive and prepared.

How do I need to be? 

Next, think about how you need to be for that version of yourself to be possible. How does your mind need to be in order for that to happen? You’ll probably imagine a calm, open mind with none of those racing thoughts.

Think about what you’ll need to do to achieve that state of calm. How do you need to be for it to happen? For some people, it might mean being well rested. For others, it might mean doing a yoga class that morning. For others, it might even mean spending the morning doing something you enjoy that will help you take your mind off of the interview to come.

As Blackler puts it, think about what you need to do “from a mindset or emotional perspective” so it goes the way you imagined.

What will help me be the way I want to be? 

Is there anything else you need in order to feel calm and collected in the interview?

“This could be a resource like a drink, a notebook or a clear desk, or it could be connected to the other person or people [in the interview],” says Blackler.

As Blackler explains, this process can help you understand exactly what you need to keep your mind at ease. “This approach puts you at the heart of the activity and checks your mindset, mood, and perspective. And you are more likely to have a better outcome,” she says.

Ultimately, everyone can benefit from taking some time to really think through how they want to be and what they need for that to happen. “What I don’t see people doing is pausing and preparing themselves in their minds,” she says. “Because if you don’t do that, all the other things will come in. When we haven’t prepared ourselves in an interview, we end up saying things we didn’t really mean or not saying what we want to say.”

By giving your mind a clean setup, you’ll be more likely to remember what you wanted to say and to say it in an effective way. By taking the time to prepare not only what you want to say but also how you want to say it, you’ll be far more likely to give the interview you always imagined. 

Images: Getty; Alison Blackler