We’ve all been there before. Getting interviews and being nervous out of our minds, wanting to back out of them. Well, I’m gonna show you one of the most surprising things that has helped me a lot to overcome my fear of a digital marketing job interview and the rejections that could result. In no time, you’ll be able to know how to ace your digital marketing job interview with flying colors!
This one’s going to be pretty brief as I’m focusing on specific things I’ve been doing to make it easier to communicate effectively and passionately with whoever I’m speaking to.
So sit back tight and blow your mind away with something so overlooked I’m surprised more people aren’t doing it!
The Problem I Had Before with Past Interviews in Digital Marketing
The amount of stage fright I had with digital marketing interviews years ago was shocking. I was barely able to get through many of them at the time because of my own fear and insecurity, despite already producing high quality work for the companies I was at even back then. I recall applying for higher level jobs at the time and not feeling like I was truly ready for them yet. It also didn’t help that back then I didn’t know how to properly present a full portfolio with all my results and writing samples.
You can kinda see where I kept failing. But I did have some successful interviews as well which at the time, I thought I had just gotten lucky. But there is a pattern with every successful interview I’ve had.
I noticed the following:
• When I researched the company in depth and examined the sites through various SEM and SEO tools and jotted down these findings, I would come into interviews with way more confidence.
• I’d immediately establish rapport with whoever I was talking to, leading to quick job offers.
• When they liked what I had to say and found value in it, they would also give me a task I could complete for them and then be hired.
• I already was super into what the company was about and immediately wanted in. It wasn’t ever just about the paycheck but being part of an organization where I could contribute and grow.
So I kept thinking about my successes with digital marketing interviews, and then went back and examined the ones where I completely bombed the whole thing. Those also had some patterns I want to note here:
• Not really looking at the company enough before applying, so when I’d have these phone calls, I’d get even more nervous and panicky.
• Or I’d actually do way too much preparation, and go overboard with what I wanted to say, therefore sounding more robotic and less passionate about the very job I wanted.
• Not being able to concretely quantify my past results and what I did step by step to achieve them. Another communication problem I kept having because I was so intimidated by the process and under so much pressure at the time. I was listening to people who made me second guess my own abilities instead of developing my own confidence from within. When you start taking control of your own life and listening to your intuition and doing your own thing, great magic happens and you begin to attract all sorts of positive people in your life. You know what you want most in life. Stop listening to others who don’t share that same vision for yourself. I learned this the hard way, but I have no regrets in going the direction in life I went in.
Yes, I did a post in the past about Digital Marketing Jobs, but I wanted to talk about something much more specific and important than superficial stuff like seeing if you’re a good fit for the company.
Important, yes, but we’ve heard all this before dozens of times. I’m trying to provide a more unique insight on how you can become less nervous at any interview that you have, not just in digital marketing, SEO, PPC, social media, email marketing, etc.
So what’s a person to do in this situation?
How do you drastically improve your digital marketing job interview success?
Changing Your Whole Attitude First to Do Well in Your Job Interview
It always begins with the mindset you’re having. If you’re going into these job interviews only wanting money and not wanting anything more out of it, you’re going to fail. You need to pick companies that align best with what you want in the long run. And then you need to communicate these wants with the company you’re interviewing with.
It’s not that hard, but these job interview companies would have you believe that things are way more complicated than they actually are.
Pretend you’re going out and grabbing a cup of coffee with your coworkers and boss. That’s the same attitude you need to have about every job interview you do, whether or not you get hired.
Even if you don’t get the job, you still met some awesome people along the way who might be able to help you later. Don’t burn the bridge just because they found another candidate at that time. It’s all perfectly okay. You win, you lose some.
This is a numbers game and eventually you will get the job offer you’re looking for if you don’t throw in the towel so soon.
But Above All, You Need to Try This: Tongue Twisters!
Yes, that’s right! Tongue twisters have really helped me so much in becoming less of a nervous nelly the day of the interview. A lot of them have gone remote, but the same uneasiness is there when you’re first starting to do interviews again.
But I found from my experience that I just needed to improve my clarity and diction on these calls.
So I began to practice some common tongue twisters each day and slowly getting faster at reciting them.
I would start with the basics like “she sells seashells by the seashore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” They were as difficult as they look, but I read them slowly and gradually increased the speed of reciting them. Then eventually I was able to get faster and faster at them.
Then I made up my own little phrase I could repeat over and over to get better at talking. And no, I have nothing against this show, but I just thought it would be humorous anyway to drop this here:
“Rick and Morty sucks. Rick and Morty sucks. Rick and Morty sucks.”
I’m not lying. I’d say this over and over until I got faster. I could even do this just by saying “Rick and Morty” repeatedly, but yeah. It’s stupid but this actually did help me so I’m sharing it here.
By the way, Rick and Morty I did enjoy but I needed a funny phrase to help me get better at speaking so this is what my brain came up with.
Then I Found Even More Tongue Twisters and Crazy Stuff to Read
So this continued for days. I found more difficult phrases and sentences to read. I even read Dr. Seuss’s “Fox in Socks” story to get myself warmed up. And I’d also record myself so I can identify my problem areas when it came to speech and clarity.
I noticed that I tended to have some issues with my S and T sounds and sometimes sounded like I had a bit of a cold when I talked. I wanted to improve my resonance and learning to speak more from my chest rather than the throat.
It also didn’t help that I have a naturally deep voice which I could use to my advantage but it’s a bit trickier to get a lot of emotion across.
I kept putting myself down over this because years ago, I called into The Tom Leykis Show and the hosts were absolutely not having it. They wanted me to sound like Jennifer Anniston or else I wasn’t getting through and didn’t like the way I sounded. This was the kind of crap I put up with from others. And not that long ago, I had some worker at Panda Express act shocked that I would talk in such a deep voice.
Well the joke is on all of them because I’m plowing through my interviews with greater confidence than ever.
Tom Leykis and his show I haven’t heard about in years and I’m glad. This was when I was really into a lot of radio shows and falling into all these negativity traps. I don’t want to give any more attention to these programs but that’s the mindset I was in that the time and it took me years to break out of it and become a better human being.
Overcoming Such Insecurities and Learning to Laugh At Yourself
But above all, I think what happened was that I learned to embrace the way I talked. I learned to not be so ashamed of my voice anymore. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.
I’d say that I can get down to Phil Hartman like ranges if I want to, and even have my own radio voice if I put in the time and effort. There’s a financial YouTuber I was watching who kinda sounded like me who was able to make his voice work and have a successful career in investments.
But, with all this practice I did, I also learned to laugh at myself. I would record myself more and more and not be so ashamed. I’d even laugh when I made mistakes and kept improving my speech, clarity and diction. It’s not perfect by any means but I feel like I’m a lot better at getting my passion across to people when I’m doing job interviews these days.
I also had a brief stint doing cold calls and that’s another story. I was absolutely terrible at it so I quickly realized it wasn’t for me. Maybe I’ll talk about that story some other time, but I think that’s all I wanted to say.
Don’t let your own feelings about your voice stand in the way of getting what’s rightfully yours in digital marketing! I hope these unconventional tips have helped.
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