Tips: Calming Your Nerves
When we want a role desperately, our anxiety kicks into overdrive. A natural physical response to fear. But if we show that in an interview, it can get us off our game.
These two simple tips can help you overcome your body’s physical reaction and reduce outward signs of anxiety that hinder our performance during product management interviews.
Eye Movement: Move eyes from side to side for 30 seconds BEFORE your interview
Breathing: Exhale. Take One Deep Breath. Take a Second Breathe.
Moving Eyes Side-to-Side
In the early 80’s, a psychologist, Francine Shapiro developed a technique for trauma treatment. She had found that taking walks was helpful for her anxiety and stress but wanted something that could work within an office.
In the end, she created what is called EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, which simply involves moving the eyes from side to side. It seems moving the eyes from side to side triggers suppression of the amygdala, the fear center in the brain. Note: Not up or down, but side to side eye movement.
To have the desired impact, you must do it for 30 seconds. Therefore, you need to complete the last BEFORE your interview.
Breathing
Most of us have heard that breathing calms us down. It turns out that an elevated stress response is related to elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. While most of us have heard about breathing to calm down, this double breath technique can help increase the amount of carbon dioxide we expel, and this increase our ability to calm down.
Practice It
Next time you are getting nervous before an interview, try giving yourself 60 seconds. Spend 30 of those seconds - it will feel like forever - moving your eyes side to side. Spend the other 30 seconds exhaling, then breathing in twice, and then exhaling.
