Expert: William Payne - 4/23/2007

Question
Hi,

My name is William Fowler. I live in St. Louis Mo and am currently attending the Eastern Missouri Law Enforcement Academy.

My question is how do I better prepare myself for interviews? I had an interview today for a confinement officer position and I would not have hired myself based off my answers. This is the second review board I have been through and both of them where completely different and went horrible. For whatever reason I cannot interview. I get nervous, my voice pitches and my mind goes completely blank. It is like a different person takes over. I handle stressful situations everyday in my current job and am extremely good with dealing with people in these situations. I can jump in the middle of a fight break it up and have the two guys shaking hands afterwards, I can take an customer who is screaming and yelling threatening to do all kinds of things to put a company out of business and make him or her recommend the companies services at the end. For whatever reason I just can't make it through an interview without messing it up. They asked my 8 questions 4 of which I was prepared to answer well and once they asked I fumbled my words and fell completely apart. Please help.

Thanks

Bill

Answer
Bill,

Thanks for the question.

It's called practice, practice, practice.

Some interviews, very few, can be intentionally very stressful. The organization might want to see how you handle stress.

In most instances, the organization will understand that someone being interviewed is going to have a certain amount of stress and nervousness. Some nervousness is going to be natural.

Some things that you can do:

1. Have friends or family interview you for specific tasks/responsibilities.

2. Go to a national chain book store in the area you live and find a law enforcement preparedness exam book, and have someone grill you on the questions and tests that are in the book.

3. Time yourself while being interviewed or tested

4. Look in the mirror and watch yourself while you are talking or giving a speech.

5. In the interview room, repeat the question to make sure of what you were asked. Before answering take a deep breath and relax.

6. Unless you are under a time constraint take it easy and respond to the questions slowly but assuredly.


I hope these work for you.

Good luck and best wishes.

The key is to practice being interviewed