How To Get Through Stress Interviews?

• Think spontaneously
• Respond rationally
• Maintain composure 

Sometimes these interviews can feel a little personal & emotion-provoking. This is deliberately done to assess your physical and psychological responses to stressful stimuli because the truth is that a complete business professional should possess a rock-solid base to face the corporate jungle.

Types of Stress Interviews

• Dismissive interviews: In such interviews, the interviewer may act uninterested, distracted, bored, and purposefully avoid eye contact. They will try to show that by using their body language and signals. For example, they might yawn, keep looking at their watch, take a phone call in front of you or even walk out for a short interval to run an errand while you are answering  
• Aggressive interviews: In such an interview, you will be asked questions that may prompt an emotional response. You may be asked things like, “Do you have anything to say about my interview technique?”, “Don’t you think you are under qualified?”
• Intimidating interviews: In this, the interviewer might choose to deliberately come across as an arrogant boss and may ask you to repeat yourself continuously. If it’s a panel, then they might even whisper amongst each other, trying to make fun of you. They want to intimidate you, to see if you break, give up or come out confident from such a situation
• Interview With Random Questions: These are seemingly random questions asked to a candidate, which are designed to gauge his/her problem-solving & reasoning skills. Questions such as “If you were to be a biscuit what biscuit would you like to be and why?” or “If you had 1Cr what would you do with it would you do with it?” are frequently asked
• Difficult hypotheticals: You will be asked a hypothetical awkward situation-based question. This is done to assess your mindset and how you would shape the future if given a chance to become a leader. For example, if you see a person cheating in an entrance exam, will you complain to the authorities?

Tips On How To Perform

• Your interviewer is trying to provoke and get a reaction out of you. Don’t aggressively respond to aggressive behavior. Stay calm, be aware of your body language and remind yourself that you need to make it through the interview  
• Bring the conversation back to where your strength lies, be thorough with the current happenings in your field of interest and display your passion

No matter how difficult your interviews and group discussions get, the insights you bring to the table will always steer all your troubles away. The power word here is “insights”, it differentiates a candidate who knows about an event from someone who has a developed understanding of the subject and can express his/her own views about the topic. Stay close to the stories that matter with The Economist, read by prominent international figures such as Bill Gates and Hillary Clinton. The Economist reports on diverse subjects, from politics to business and finance; from science and technology to culture and the arts with 50% off on annual digital subscription.
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• When conversing with your interviewer, try to maintain confident eye contact at all times. Don’t roll your eyes (that will make the interviewer think you are mocking them), or start looking up or down while answering (the panelists will think that stress has hit you)
• Maintaining a good upright posture with hands on your thighs can make you look confident
• Sometimes “I don’t know” is also the right answer. In the end, we are all human beings. It is completely fine if you do not know the answer to the question your interviewer is asking you. Just confidently own up to it. It takes a lot of courage to admit that you “don’t know” the answer. Something your interviewers will also respect.
• Don’t take it personally. Stress interviews are not meant to belittle or attack you personally. During such interviews, if you are feeling cornered by harsh questioning or behavior, remind yourself that it’s nothing but an assessment tactic and don’t take it to your heart

FAQs

1. What makes you think you’re qualified & ready for something like this?
2. Do you think you are performing well in this interview?
3. You have lost me completely. Could you start again and get to the point this time?
4. Why are you nervous? Please be loud and clear.
5. What is that one thing which you want to change about yourself?
6. I don’t think you are a good fit for this, why should I consider you?
7. Your team members have not done the project accurately, one of them has not even turned up yet. You are leading that assignment and the deadline is just an hour later. What will you do?
8. Why us? Where else have you applied to?
9. The format of your CV is just confusing, why did you choose it to be this way?
10. What is your plan B? What if you don’t get selected?