I walked into an interview expecting 1 person and instead there were 8 sitting around a board room table - I choked. They were asking me simple fit questions, I was visibly nervous and couldn't spit out what I was trying to say. I had prepared answers before but would get shaken part way through and stop abruptly, repeating what I had said over again. I hit a stride later in the interview and was actually able to give a few coherent answers. However, this has happened before over the phone and during a one on one interview, I am anything but consistent. Sometimes i'm on and incredibly confident, but today I was a nervous wreck. Any tips from people who have had the same experience?
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8?! Wow where was this?
They give out a business leadership award for my school and a panel interview is apparently the last stage of the process. Several department heads (one of which is also currently a senior portfolio manager at BlackRock) and prominent professors in their respective fields made up the panel - I was out gunned.
At one point they asked me to stand up and told me that I had just gotten into an elevator with the CEO of a major corporation, I have two minutes, go. I'm not sure aside from stressing me out what point standing up served.
Game over, I would have been dead meat right there.
that sucks but it happens. take it as a learning experience. expect the worst, hope for the best
That's brutal to walk into....I've had one beer and/or liquor drink before an interview (brush teeth afterwards of course) to calm my nerves. It helped quite a bit when I was younger, and hadn't had many interviews.
Yea I was thinking about doing this, I lack experience and maybe this will bridge the gap. I also don't want to seem like an alcoholic but after that performance this is the least of my worries.
Don't use alcohol dude, use this as a learning experience. It will help later in life. We've all been there, I remember absolutely butchering my first phone interview (Was with freakin Lazard). After doing even just one superday and a few mocks I never got nervous again. Practice, practice, practice.
It's tough starting out but you get better with experience and you get more confident when you have a stable full-time job. At least you're getting this over with earlier rather than later.
I am the same way with public speaking... sometimes I'm on, sometimes I'm nervous as hell. Glad I was able to become confident when it comes to interviewing, but what got me there was practice and experience... after enough interviews, it became a routine kind of thing and I didn't even think twice about them. Also, it helped that I got a good offer early on, so I didn't stress about the remaining interviews since I knew I already had a good place to fall back on.
All I can tell you is, keep on trying bro. Work hard, practice, and you'll get it.
8 is alot wow. But I my thing is I got in there with so much confidence, in my head i'm saying you would be dumb not to hire me, and I you could tell in my answers i'm confident in myself.
Definitely do not sweat it man. To be totally honest, some of the interviews I was most nervous I landed easiest.
Remember, when an interviewer sees someone who is both smart & extremely nervous, they know one thing: He really wants the job.
With that said, of course when you get up into higher level interviews, you cannot be this nervous. That's why it's okay to get this stuff out of the way now while you're still entry level. These people see it everyday, don't worry about it. They would rather have someone who's very nervous than someone who is cocky & puts himself above the interviewer. Trust me.
I bombed my UBS LA first round. Theres always more opportunities and multiple ways to get to the same ending point.
They asked you to stand up to simulate giving an elevator speech.
I recently bombed an interview also, was confident going in but froze when he threw unexpected live scenarios at me. Feels bad man.
Thanks for the advice and support. Just wanted to post some follow up; I actually ended up winning the award despite what I thought was a poor interview - really excited! Apparently getting practice interviewing for some IB SA positions before this made my worst interview still better than most. I just hope I can pull this kind of luck when FT hiring comes around.
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