15 Tips on How to Answer Interview Questions Confidently

boost confidence for interviews
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Demonstrating your confidence for an interview is as crucial as your skills and professional competence for it is a strong booster that will calm your nerves and enhance your performance in an interview. 

People who show confidence in an interview are more attractive and impressive and are more likely to get hired. 

Nevertheless, not many of us are born with enough confidence for an interview, not to mention those who have imposter syndrome. In addition, even if it’s completely normal to experience stress during an interview, the pressure could severely impair the candidate’s interview confidence and performance. 

Fortunately, there are tactics to help you build confidence for interviews and how to face them confidently.

Read on to learn 15 tips to be confident in an interview.

Tips for Boosting Your Confidence Before an Interview

💡 Prepare a good self-introduction.

An impressive self-introduction is the best opening to show your confidence in an interview. After all, “Tell me about yourself” is one of the most commonly asked and often the first interview questions.

A self-introduction will help you build confidence and set the tone for the rest of the interview. Bringing up your best career accomplishments in an introduction shows your confidence rather than arrogance in an interview. It can be an icebreaker to create connections with the hiring manager. 

Preparing a good self-introduction will increase your interview confidence and maintain professionalism. 

💡 Prepare answers to common interview questions.

Carefully preparing for interview answers is definitely a pre-interview confidence boost. Well-prepared answers will give you a sense of control and therefore build up your confidence for the interview. 

Even if you have a flawless resume or extensive professional experience, you should still prepare answers for commonly asked interview questions, so you are less likely to panic when you need to come up with an answer on the spot.

🔎 Further reading:  Common Interview Questions and Answers

💡 Rehearse out loud.

Knowing what to say helps you stay calm. However, as for how to sound confident in an interview, rehearsing your answers aloud is likely the only way.

Consider answering interview questions with a recorder or practicing with friends or family. Take notes on questions to which you answer hesitantly or uncertainly.

Rehearsing can help you sound natural and show your confidence in the interview. 

💡 Decide what to wear to the interview in advance. 

One key to boosting confidence prior to an interview is to limit potential factors that could cause chaos. Deciding on your interview attire will help ease your pressure ahead of the interview.

Professional outfits that help you show confidence in an interview include suit jackets, shirts, ties, blouses, statement dresses, or dress pants. 

In addition, ironing your attire the day before your interview will make you look more spirited, definitely crucial for interview confidence.

💡 Arrive earlier.

The ideal time to arrive for an interview is approximately 10-15 minutes before the arranged time. Arriving earlier gives you the advantage of looking effortless, which is beneficial to showing your confidence for an interview.

Make sure you check your google map and plan your route. To show up to the job interview with confidence and avoid unforeseen accidents, give yourself an extra 30 minutes to travel.

💡 Stay positive. 

Preparing for an interview can be a nerve-racking situation. Adopting a positive mindset is essential for candidates to build confidence for an upcoming interview. Positivity is not about believing in a happy ending. It’s mostly about preparing for uncertainty and knowing, while it’s impossible to have everything under control, how to respond to the unexpected.

If you want to show self-confidence in an interview, you’ll have to stop worrying about being disliked. Think of the interview as an opportunity for growth and practicing for the best job to come.

Tips on How to Be Confident in an Interview

There are practical techniques that teach you how to be confident during an interview. To bring your interview preparation into play and demonstrate self-confidence in an interview, try the eight useful tips below:

✅ Practice breathing techniques.

A widely recognized technique to air out stress by the U.S. navy is called box breathing. It’s a simple yet powerful way to help your body regain its normal rhythm and bring back your confidence for an interview.
Here’s how to do it:

  • Sit up and keep your spine straight.
  • Exhale all of the air in your lungs deeply out through your mouth.
  • Next, inhale through your nose slowly while counting to 4.
  • Hold your breath and count to 4 again.
  • Exhale slowly through your nose and count to 4 once more.
  • Finally, hold your breath again after you exhale.

With a couple of cycles, you’ll be more focused on your task with a clear mind and ready to show your confidence in the interview.

✅ Maintain eye contact.

Showing steady, natural eye contact is another way to show confidence during an interview. Wandering gaze signals an unfocused, nervous candidate. 

More specifically, you can create confidence by focusing on a spot between the interviewer’s eyes and taking natural breaks while doing so during an interview. 

✅ Smile.

Confidence is strongly correlated to attractiveness. A sincere, genuine smile shows that you have confidence in what you are about to say in the interview. To show confidence in an interview, remember to smile and be kind. Instead of being stiff and rigid, smiling releases endorphins to boost your mood and build your confidence for your job interview.

✅ Talk slowly.

One of the tips to be confident in an interview is to learn to talk more slowly. Confident people tend to take their time answering questions, and talking slowly will give them more time to think and speak clearly. 

It’s an effective method to deal with unexpected interview questions. You get to have some extra time to think of good answers to those questions while demonstrating self-confidence in the interview. 

✅ Match your volume to the interviewer’s.

Matching your volume to the interviewer’s helps you relax and show confidence in your job interview. People tend to be more comfortable talking to someone who shares similar communication patterns, such as speech style or gesture.
By secretly mirroring the interviewer, you make both yourself and the interviewer comfortable and gradually build up confidence in the interview.

✅ Don’t fidget.

Unconscious fidgeting is one of the most obvious signs of anxiety. To appear confident in an interview, keep your hands on your lap and your legs steady. 

A way to identify any subconscious fidgeting is to record a video of yourself rehearsing. By watching the video, you can improve your body language and prepare to show confidence before the interview. If you notice any finger fiddling or hair twirling, remember to keep your hands on your lap during the actual conversation. 

✅ Pay attention to your body language and positioning.

Body languages are compelling element if you want to convey and show confidence during an interview. Confident body language includes sitting up straight, holding your palms up while speaking. 

✅ Connect with the interviewer instead of trying to impress them.

Finally, if you want to exude confidence during an interview, try to create connections with the interviewer. We’re more likely to feel at ease with people, who we share similarities with, which is one way to look confident in an interview.

Tips on How to Be Confident in a Zoom Interview

Since more and more interviews are conducted via Zoom, Google meet, or Webex, here are three useful tips on how to appear confident in an online interview.

✨ Stay visibly engaged.

To show your engagement and confidence during an online interview, consider nodding your head to give affirmation, allowing your hands occasionally to be visible, or making sure your eyes are looking straight. Keep your spine straight, and your shoulders relaxed. In addition, dress exactly like how you would for an in-person interview.

✨ Check the environment and choose an appropriate background.

How to look confident in an online interview? Choose a comfortable and well-lit place for your virtual interview. Next, make sure your background is appropriate—that your cat or your kid won’t accidentally rush in and distract the interviewer.

✨ Don’t let an unstable internet connection ruin your interview confidence.

Having a strong internet connection is crucial for maintaining your confidence during the job interview. Imagine a terrible lag due to a bad wi-fi connection and asking the interviewer to repeat their question three times. You’d likely start panicking and lose your confidence. By removing any potential technical issues in advance, you can easily boost your confidence for an interview.

🔑 Key Takeaways

In this article, we offered practical tips on how to appear and sound confident in an interview. 

Here are the key takeaways for a final interview confidence boost:

  • Prepare for and rehearse your answer.
  • Use body language, eye contact, smile, and positioning to show self-confidence in the interview
  • To build and maintain your confidence for online interviews, make sure your equipment and physical environment are friendly for an uninterrupted conversation.
  • Use breathing techniques to ease your anxiety and build interview confidence.
  • Talk slowly and pause briefly to think clearly and sound certain.

* Cake provides the best resume making tools & templates to help you create the perfect resume for your job hunt. Take your career journey to new heights - create a resume online (free download) now!

--- Originally written by Wu Chao Min ---

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