Your interview is tomorrow and you are struggling to understand how a person’s blood pressure can be so high. Will you aggravate the latent heart disease gene in your family? You try taking deep breaths like your therapist suggested but your mind gets tangled in questions of what to say and how hard to shake the interviewer’s hand and whether this interview will ruin your chances at another; employers all know each other, a secret society designed to blackball any defective candidates they snuff out. Suffice it to say, a job interview has a way of increasing one’s stress. Yet, the task is not as daunting are your overdramatic stress is making it out to be. With a little attention to your attire, your disposition, and the requisite materials for any interview, the task ahead of you is but a chance to prove all that you know.

Dress for the job you want rather than the one you have; yes, this is perhaps the most clichéd piece of advice I could have offered regarding interviewing. But, you don’t want to go into an interview without a care for your appearance. Someone dressed more professionally commands more attention and more respect than one who does not. Play to the subliminal judgments people make when they meet someone and take on the respect you deserve. Men, wear button-up shirts and slacks. Women, wear a skirt and blazer or a pant suit or something of that ilk. This is not to say that I have a profound understanding of subliminal advertising or fashion but this is a matter of common sense.

Yet, one’s appearance is not only about the clothes he or she dons but their disposition as well. Smile and hold your shoulders high and make eye contact with your interviewers. Carrying yourself in such a way commands a room and the attention of employers. You will convince not only your audience but yourself that you are qualified and capable.

Yet, if you do nothing else, carry the materials one should always have at an interview. This means having multiple copies of your resume and having a list of questions at hand. You do not need to draft profound questions but you want to seem as though you are not only the interviewee but the interviewer. You are questioning what your potential employer can offer you. Regardless of the practical applications of drafting your thoughts, you are convincing your audience of how thorough a worker you are.

On that note, know your audience. Say you are interviewing at a company that manufactures phones. Know that. A few simple google searches will teach you the outlines of the company to which you are applying. You will be familiar with its products, its problems, and its mission. This is not only an element of preparedness but important to you tailoring your responses to these goals.

Of course, Raiders at the Dr. James Forrest Career and Technology center have the option of attending an annual interview fair to hone your skills. And remember, that interviewers are just people. We have a tendency to dramatize them as the kind of monsters a kid would imagine lives in his or her closet. Remembering that they are just as unsure as you, may save you some of the stresses of this manageable process.