How to stay calm for an interview

[Jt16]

Hey,

So I have an interview with a dental school but I have really bad anxiety. I’m not sure how I’m gonna keep myself calm during the actual interview. I feel like my voice is gonna shake and I’ll be shaking in general lol. I was wondering if anyone had any tips 🙂

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[macsak]

Hey,

So I have an interview with a dental school but I have really bad anxiety. I’m not sure how I’m gonna keep myself calm during the actual interview. I feel like my voice is gonna shake and I’ll be shaking in general lol. I was wondering if anyone had any tips 🙂

relax and be yourself...

 

[VladiAVB]

A mentor of mine recommended turning the nervousness into excitement so I put on a song that pumps me up and even wrote out some of the lyrics and kept it by me during the interview. Surprisingly it helped a lot

 

[zdoq]

If you feel a lot of physical anxiety, close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths. My favorite way to do this is a yoga breathing technique called Alternate Nostril Breathing- if you’re not familiar, google it! It definitely lowers my heart rate and helps me focus a lot better.

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

Have an idea about what you might say for routine dental interview questions. For your answers, have some talking points prepared. Also, have a couple of stories prepared that you can give as examples, if asked. And know about the school, reasons why you want to go there, and have questions prepared about the school for the end of the interview. If you’re well prepared for the interview, you can start with confidence knowing that you can field most of the questions.

Also, don’t beat yourself up if you’re given a hard question and didn’t answer “perfect.” Keep in mind that this question was intended to be tough, most other interviewers struggled to answer it as well, and often the way you answer is more important than the content of the answer you gave. Are you being friendly? Are you stating your answer with confidence and supporting your answer as needed?

 

[OMSDoc]

PO propranolol, 10 mg, 2 hours before the interview.

 

[yostwafu]

tbh, it's all about practicing. The more you do it the less nervous you'd be.

 

[2thDoc11]

One this that has oddly helped me is to just listen to podcasts or watch them on YouTube.. for instance the joe Rogan podcast or for me, I enjoy bigger pockets real estate. They interview successful real estate investors and just ask what they’ve done, mistakes they’ve made, lessons learned and all that jazz. Just listening to how others talk and approach questions and explain themselves is helpful. But I‘m also someone who is pretty easily motivated after watching/listening to other people do things. For instance, after watching creed, I wanna start boxing or get into stocks after watching the wolf of wall street 😉 But think of something you can talk about in every interview that isn’t obvious like your grades or a job. Think about the odd questions like “when was a time you received criticism and how did you react?”, “describe a time you wrongly received a punishment”,”when have y been required to work in a team and how did you make it work when others didnt pull their weight?”..

 

[futuredds__]

Hey!

I think the more you practice, the better it gets. I try to record myself for answering generic questions like "why do you want to become a dentist?", or like "why do you want to come to _____ school?", things you could mostly find on SDN interview site. My first interview was def the most nervous one, but after awhile it does get better, and one thing that I found that's super useful is that most schools that do traditional interviews overlap a lot of the same/generic questions. So as long as you are prepared to answer those questions what you really have to prepare for the day before your interview is - why do I want to go to this specific school? I would go to their website and find some info about their schools like their mission/philosophy, their history, maybe unique community outreach programs they have etc.. I would say most of the schools did ask me that question, so be prepared!

Believe it or not, I still get nervous for my interviews like I am smiling on my webcam lol but my hands are sweating haha I think it's natural for anyone.

Hope this helps! and good luck on the rest of your app this cycle~ You got this!
If you have any questions for interview tips you can send me a direct message 🙂

 

[natemckeown2]

Start the conversation by asking them how their day is going or if they are enjoying the interview process. Be very kind and friendly to start out. A simple intro question really sets the tone for the rest of the interview, and it keeps you calm knowing you started off on a high mark. Just make sure to give honest responses. Let it be known they are conversing with an awesome person rather than interviewing an applicant. Also, avoid the common interview questions almost all interviewees ask and come up with some creative, thoughtful questions that the interviewers likely have not heard before.

 

[Rambunctious]

relax and be yourself...

This is untrue, because can we all really be ourselves when out in public? Better advice would be to be kind respectful and speak to everyone like they are your friends.

 

[deleted1078029]

This is untrue, because can we all really be ourselves when out in public? Better advice would be to be kind respectful and speak to everyone like they are your friends.

I absolutely agree with this statement. Put your best foot forward. It's still going to be you, but just the best part. Save the worst part for self-reflection like I do every Friday night instead of chilling with friends lmao