Posted by Didn’t get the chance to check out the Mindful Interviewing event last Thursday? This workshop, led by Genevieve Boron of the Wasserman Center and Melissa Carter, Head of Mindfulness Education & Innovation at Mindful NYU, was designed to let attendees know how to use mindfulness before and during the interview process. Read below for Wasserman Career Ambassador, Tiffany Wong’s, take on the event.
Hello everyone! My name is Tiffany and I am currently a senior at NYU studying Applied Psychology. Throughout most of my college years, I have had the privilege of learning about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. In fact, one of our research labs looks exactly how mindfulness can better empower students to take charge of their education. So when I heard about the brand new Mindful Interviewing workshop, I knew that this was definitely an area where I can learn a lot from.
As a collaborative event between the Office of Global Spiritual Life and NYU Wasserman, we were given practical tips on practicing mindfulness in a high stress, high stakes situation such as an interview. Knowing that our nerves can actually hinder us from being at our best performance, it was especially important to be self aware and think about the ways that you can anchor yourself back to the cool, calm, and collected person you are. Sometimes, even just acknowledging the physical sensations we are experiencing before the interview is a great grounding method to refocus back to the moment. One special moment that I especially enjoyed during the workshop was having the opportunity to give a surprise elevator pitch to our neighbors. Even though it threw us off guard a little bit, I found myself using the methods that were taught literally just minutes before in order to calm myself down and really pitch to my neighbor about my career interests!
A big takeaway that I got from this event was definitely learning about some practical steps to set myself up for success. We know about ourselves more than we would admit, and it is important that we can really lay the groundwork for us to perform at our best.
- Remembering to emphasize with the interviewer that the position/company culture is a good fit with your experience and skills is a must!
I now feel much more confident to bring out my best self in interviewers and I highly recommend that you also attend this workshop if you ever get a chance to!
Mindful tip: Try breathing in for four seconds and breathing out for six seconds four times to help to calm the nerves while preparing for the interview and right before the interview. Research the industry, organization and yourself (have a story prepared for everything on your resume) before the interview. The night before the interview write down all the things you are worried about- this “brain dump” can help you sleep better. Don’t eat or drink anything you don’t normally eat or drink the day of the interview. Eat a meal with protein if possible before the interview and stay hydrated for your best mental power. After the interview take time to celebrate and write down reflections within 30 minutes to help you write your personalized thank you emails to everyone you interviewed with. Check out the Interviewing Guide on Handshake- Career Center –> Resources –> Interviewing for more tips and tricks.
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