7 things you need to survive interview preparations !!
Whether you have a full time job or in-between jobs, you would need several surviving skills to keep your focus up and towards your goal of passing interviews. During my interview preparations over the past 5 years, including the time during COVID-19, when you could not leave your home for obvious reasons, I learned many coping skills the hard way.
I will try to summarize my main strategies in the points below, hope it helps you as well.
- Wake up with a good routine.
I noticed that the mood in which I woke up each morning played a crucial role to what I can accomplish during the day. It can make-or-break my day. Waking up in a bad mood can simply throw my plans for the day. While waking up in a good, happy and intentional mood can help me achieve everything that I set out for [ and sometimes more].
Start your day by folding your blanket and sheets, and doing 5 simply exerices for 15–20 minutes to warm up your mornings. I do squats, pushups, arm and leg stretches and 10 minutes of jogging to bring a fresh start of my day.
You can try a similar routine, or make your own-bed morning routines to add more meaning to your wake-up alarms.
2. Eat a healthy diet
Studying is the most strenuous exercise for your mind and body. While the mind is trying to concentrate and build muscle memory for each solution you read, your body is trying to stay still, and ignore all distractions which may be caused by your atmosphere. You need to nourish both mind and body at the same time, by eating a healthy and well balanced diet.
Eating a high carbs diet can put u to immediate sleep, so I would always advice against eating pizza or any bread made of pure white breads. Instead eat whole grains bread, whole grains diet like quinoa or brown rice, and fresh fruits. I would add lots of fats and proteins including protein bars to my snack and whole-meals.
3. Exercise
As I said before, both body and mind needs to keep up with the stress of preparation, exercises can play a very crucial role to keep you feeling motivated all the time.
For mind, I like to play Sudoku or minesweeper or any other games that would require me to do math at a fast and comfy pace. Mind-stimulating games can help bring the focus back on where you left off in your studies. Many times, I would introduce these games to get over some boring chapters which I should know about, but are not related to my work at all.
Ofcourse, exercises to keep your body in A-One shape are always needed. Moreover, during these times, it is even the most crucial than ever. Running, jogging, Intense yoga, body resistance training or high intensity workouts can help stimulate your body in the right direction.
4. Put everything in your calendar
It’s very easy to get distracted or lost in any activity when you are preparing for interviews, just by yourself. Trust me it will happen again and again that you will miss your day goals, which would lead to missing weekly goals, … which could lead to the missing monthly goals. :(
I would suggest putting everything in a calendar and sticking to the timeline of each task to make the most of your day. a tsk could be as simple as taking bath or doing some breathing exercises.
5. Include time for laughter
All the above things will help you keep your motivation and commitment up towards preparing for interviews, but if you do not keep your spirits high by stimulating your laugh and allocating some time for social well being, you may get irritated or frustrated very soon.
Ensure that you can set aside some time during your week for social bonding and laughter with your friends and family.
7. Change your scenery [ for positive impact]
Your mind and body can get conditioned to your surroundings super quickly. You must keep changing the environment so that you feel good about your study space. Sometimes, a few negative emotions like a loss of job, can pollute your aura where you study.
Frequently moving in and out of your space will keep your space pure of positive intentions.
8. Sleep on time
Include soothing music for a deep sleep. Track your sleeping habits using a device such as fitbit or iwatch. This will help you ensure you are not mentally fatigued and will also narrow down your pain points.
I also invested in a good coffee maker which I would put on a timer each night, so that I can wake up to a fresh pot of coffee. Nothing beats the fragrance of a good coffee in the morning. I would advice try different blends, and coffee seeds to ensure each day is not the same fragrance. Our mind likes surprises than boring routines, so try to keep it fresh.
P.S.
With this, I wish you all the best, and please leave some comments below to let me know in case you need any help for interviews, mocks or simply referrals ;).
