Beyond B-School
Performing Under Pressure: Top Interview Tools
with Jordan Friedman
with Jordan Friedman

Overview/What You Will Learn

You have worked hard for your job interview and now is your opportunity to shine.  Yet, high stress at interview time can affect your performance. Jordan Friedman, stress reduction expert, shares helpful strategies to help you relax and shine in the process.

Key Points

  • Leverage your chance to stand apart from other applicants and showcase your talents by identifying and practicing successful interview strategies, including:
    • Know the 5 Ws.
    • Who will attend?  Will you interview with one person or a team?
    • What you will emphasize about you that fits the job description.
    • Where the interview is.  If it’s in person, have hard copies or your laptop on hand to share work samples. If it’s online, prepare an appropriate background/setting and prepare materials to share electronically.
    • When the interview is. If given the option, schedule it at a time of day when you are at your best.
    • Why you are excited to apply.
  • Do Your Homework.
  • Prepare questions for the interviewer based on his/her perspective and experience.
  • Prepare statistics or information to discuss related to current industry trends; bring resources or suggestions to offer.
  • Practice.  Try out answers on friends or acquaintances and get feedback.
  • Be yourself. Let your personality and strengths shine through.

Your Next Steps / Tips for Success

  • Prepare your list of specific strategies for how you will highlight your key attributes.
  • Practice these strategies. Practice weaving descriptions of your accomplishments, experience and relevant skills into your discussion.
  • Relax. Use deep breathing exercises to focus and calm your mind prior to entering the interview.

Nobody does stress reduction like Jordan Friedman. He combines his remarkable stress survival story with 20 years of speaking, writing and research to motivate and teach audiences to deal productively with challenge, change and crisis. His unique emphasis on practical strategies that simultaneously reduce stress and promote professional and academic advancement resonates with anyone who wants to ace interviews, shine among peers, maximize performance or just feel better.  Jordan is the author of The Stress Manager’s Manual. As longtime director of Columbia’s health education program, Jordan penned hundreds of Internet and newspaper columns on everything from muscular relaxation to bedtime communication, and he co-authored the popular Go Ask Alice Book Of Answers. His work has been quoted and promoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, CNN, National Public Radio and O Magazine among others. Jordan's dedication to sustained stress reduction also drives his Stressbusters program, a continuous outreach magnet that now connects nearly 200,000 students and staff with stress reduction and wellness information at Harvard, St. John's, the University of Missouri and other schools.