The ‘clean mind setup’

While practising techniques like meditation or breathwork may help you to calm a racing, panicked mind before an interview, according to Blackler, the ‘clean mind setup’ technique is a useful alternative that’s all about visualising how you want to come across throughout the interview – and how you need to be for that to happen.

“Often we know what we are going to do and we prepare and plan for the activity,” she explains. “But we generally don’t pause to think about how we need to be so it goes as we want.”

The technique involves asking yourself three questions:

How do I want this interview to go?

Begin by visualising the ideal interview. How are you acting? How are you sitting? For most people, you’ll imagine the best version of yourself: poised, calm, receptive and prepared.

How do I need to be?

Next, think about how you need to be for that version of yourself to be possible. How does your mind need to be in order for that to happen? You’ll probably imagine a calm, open mind with none of those racing thoughts.

Think about what you’ll need to do to achieve that state of calm. How do you need to be for it to happen? For some people, it might mean being well rested. For others, it might mean doing a yoga class that morning. For others, it might even mean spending the morning doing something you enjoy that will help you take your mind off of the interview to come.

As Blackler puts it, think about what you need to do “from a mindset or emotional perspective” so it goes the way you imagined.

What will help me be the way I want to be?

Is there anything else you need in order to feel calm and collected in the interview?

“This could be a resource like a drink, a notebook or a clear desk, or it could be connected to the other person or people [in the interview],” says Blackler.

Always freezing up in job interviews? A career coach explains how the ‘clean mind setup’ can help