My First Interview in SIX years!

Woah! It’s been six long years since I’ve had to interview for a job! All I can say is, “wow!” and that my anxiety was at an all time high!

After having been in retail for nine years, and being at my current store for six of them, it was a little difficult to warm up to the idea of having to sit through an interview. Knowing how, in the past, I’ve handled situations like this, I was NOT looking forward to it.

The feelings that arose were reminiscent of the days when I had major, major, anxiety attacks over these kinds of things, and I gotta tell ya, I don’t miss those days one bit.

When I found out I had secured an interview, I felt fine at first – semi-confident even, and I thought to myself, “Wow, you are handling this so well and my old self would be so proud of you right now!”

But then, (dun, dun, dunnn), the bubble guts hit, the heart rate accelerated, the sweaty palms and hot flashes started, and the brain kicked into overdrive. The interview was all I could think of. More like obsess over.

When I was at home, I occupied myself by watching four episodes of The Voice so I wouldn’t have to think about the impending doom.

Unfortunately, the later it got, the worse my anxiety got.

I stayed up for two, maybe three, hours researching “common interview questions,” copy and pasting them into my notes app, and answering them.

Funnily, I felt like they weren’t that difficult to answer, thanks to my work experience and knowledge, but… that wasn’t good enough for my anxious mind. I needed to know ALL the questions. I needed to have ALL the answers. So, I kept digging.

Eventually, I reached a point where I had to say to myself that what I was doing wasn’t helpful anymore and it was only fueling my anxiety, and I had to stop.

I put my phone down, turned off the bedside lamp, and tried to get some sleep. Without much luck, unfortunately.

Another hour passed as the gears in my head kept turning. I was having fake conversations, creating fake scenarios and situations, and still, fueling my anxiety.

I really tried to interrupt my snowballing thoughts and say to myself: Molly, it’s okay. You’re going to be okay and you got this. You can do this. I started saying to myself: You are strong and brave and courageous and you are going to absolutely fine. You have all the answers you need.

I also had to remind myself that, even if I don’t get this job afterwards, it’s totally fine. It doesn’t mean that I’m any less valuable or worthy. It just means that I wasn’t the right fit for the job, and that’s totally understandable.

Eventually, I was able to drift off to sleep. It was a sleep with lots of tossing and turning, but at least I got some sleep.

This morning, (the day of the interview), I tried my best to stay composed and positive and tried not to work myself up too much. As hard as I tried, my anxiety was coming through. I didn’t feel nearly as bad or anxious as I had last night, but the anxiety was still lingering – my hands were shaking and my stomach was bubbling something fierce.

On the plus side, I hadn’t completely broken down into tears and ugly cried like my life depended on it. (Yay! Progress!).

If you’re like me, and you really, truly struggle with situations like these, I’m going to put the links to the sites where I found the common interview questions here and here.

You can copy and paste, or handwrite, the questions and then answer them yourselves.

Take your time reading the questions, think about your answer first, and then write your answer down.

If you already have work experience, great! That’ll really help you a lot and you will be able to draw from your experiences.

If you don’t have any experience, no worries! You can use relevant examples from your life.

Try not to make up an answer, you want to be as authentic as possible. Consider saying: “While I haven’t had that kind of experience or been in that type of situation before, if faced with (that), I would do (this).

I know it’s hard to stay calm and level-headed under stress and pressure like this, but try your best and implement practices and calming techniques you’re familiar with to help.

Best of luck! (To both of us!)

We got this!

With love and support,

Molly