A wee snifter before a job interview?

Nah mate, you need to pop half a valium instead. that’ll loosen you right up.

You’re more likely to end up an alcoholic than get a job.

It’s a well known fact that some men were born two drinks below par.
Dr Maclaren : Whisky Galore.

A bit of Sam Vimes going on here i guess, always a couple of drinks too knurd.

Are you an airline pilot by any chance?

I do feel more emboldened either way to catch myself if its going poorly and just say “hold up, I’m doing it again, lets just take a moment…”

This seems like a far better approach than having a drink before the interview. Since you know they guy, and he knows how you struggle, why not open the interview with a suggestion that either of you call for a pause if you start derailing?

Please tell me the job is at a brewery.

I was an awful interviewer having mind blanks and giving responses too quickly and missing the key points.

I was given a tip of having a large glass of water or bottle of fluid which helped me, I would listen to the question, have a sip giving myself some time to process the question before giving an answer or if I hadn’t understood the question not being afraid to ask them to re read it or reword it, did me alright and got me the job I wanted after a few god awful interviews!

[The people doing to interview aren’t looking forward to it either, especially not over Zoom.

Tell me about it, I’ve been on six interview panels over the past five days. Even one drink would have put me at too high a risk of falling asleep in two of them.

From the outside looking in, this seems to be a problem of your own devising. Ie, it’s not that you’re bad at interviews, it’s that you believe you’re bad at interviews and this then becomes self-fulfilling.

Everyone (who isn’t a sociopath) is nervous at interviews. It’s an unknown quantity, you don’t know what the interviewers are going to be like, whether you can cut the mustard, your potential future career depends on whether you can impress in the next 20 minutes, etc etc. But.

You know this guy, he knows you. You’ve worked together previously. You’re ahead of the curve because if he didn’t think you were suitable for the role then you wouldn’t be in the chair in the first place. What if you had the job and this were a team meeting, would you be “useless” then? Ask yourself, what’s the difference?

In your head it’s an INTERVIEW – it’s not, it’s a chat with a work colleague. Best-case scenario, you get offered a better job; worst-case, nothing changes from where you are now.

@TheFlyingOx came here to see if anyone had posted that. Never finish the second drink.

Everyone (who isn’t a sociopath) is nervous at interviews

Something I found useful in the past but is hard to recreate is screwing something up just before the interview eg bad public transport (okay that is easier nowadays), having an arse of a time finding the place. After the stress of that the nerves get forgotten.

That’s how I passed my driving test. I did something gormless right at the beginning, I don’t even remember now, stalled setting off from outside the test centre or something. Thought, “great, that’s that then, I’ve bollocksed it before I’ve started” and then had a flawless drive because all the mental pressure had gone out the window.

That’s how I passed my driving test.

For a second there I thought you meant by having a drink beforehand.

In your head it’s an INTERVIEW – it’s not, it’s a chat with a work colleague. Best-case scenario, you get offered a better job; worst-case, nothing changes from where you are now.

This is a good point, I haven’t interviewed for a few years but I always took that approach. It’s a conversation to allow them to see if you are the right candidate for the role they need to fill, but it’s also a conversation to allow you to decide if the job/company/team are right for you. Go in as an equal.

I was given a tip of having a large glass of water or bottle of fluid which helped me, I would listen to the question, have a sip giving myself some time to process the question before giving an answer or if I hadn’t understood the question not being afraid to ask them to re read it or reword it, did me alright and got me the job I wanted after a few god awful interviews!

This +1, just get a nice water bottle, not a manky old cycling bidon. That and unless* they make you sit at a desk it gives you something to do with your hands that doesn’t just giving the person from HR some body language to apply their cod psychology to.

*In an actual face to face interview

An actual drink seems like a bad idea, it doesn’t make you better, it just lowers the bar of what you consider acceptable. Go to the gym and do some deadlifts or squats beforehand, or go for a ride with some all out intervals. Anything to get your blood pumping and endorphins going that’ll give you a better mental boost without the downsides.

do it.

This is just a really bad idea – if you are nervous then the booze won’t help because alcohol is a depressant so you’ll just make poor choices. If you are nervous tell the interviewer and have the discussion before the main thrust of the interview, a good interviewer will take it into account

also, SillySilly

“I sometimes take candidates to bar for final stage interviews. ” you have a work culture that needs dragging out of the 70s, imagine a someone with medical or religious reasons for not drinking applying for a job, it’s discriminatory

Everyone (who isn’t a sociopath) is nervous at interviews. It’s an unknown quantity, you don’t know what the interviewers are going to be like, whether you can cut the mustard, your potential future career depends on whether you can impress in the next 20 minutes, etc etc. But.

I don’t I love em.

If you know the guy can you not meet up with him before hand so you’re “in the zone” with him so you feel like he is onside?

Cocaine, just not too much of it, or you’ll talk bollocks

I don’t I love em.

Everyone (who isn’t a sociopath)

😁

Just hosted a department meeting online. All good, no nerves. The presentation (on Skype) blanked out a couple of times which required some on-the-hoof sorting. A colleague commented afterwards “but you handled it like a pro”, I said good job I had a G&T beforehand. He laughed…

snowflakes.

if it calms you down then why not? ive certainly done it in the past. if i have a dram, doesnt mean im gonna polish off the bottle.

i remember when i started my first job out of school, the boss had a crystal decanter of scotch on his desk and whenever you met with him he’d pour you one! was horrible 😀

never did Don Draper any harm…

Second vote for ‘not quite 2 pints pissed’.

You ARE a tiger…

8 Ace…..

Interview done, and went OK. Nae booze, but LOTS of stress over the weekend.

Off out on the bike now, this weather is bonkers.

Well in,good luvk. 🙂

Bike over booze any day > good luck!

you have a work culture that needs dragging out of the 70s, imagine a someone with medical or religious reasons for not drinking applying for a job, it’s discriminatory

The moment any co hits scale it will end up selling product and / or services to people that want to drink. Diversity ends up happening naturally with scale and is required to achieve it. Japan/Eastern Europe Vs Middle East/Africa require very different people to acquire and retain customers. Personally I would rather MTB over drink and work every day but unfortunately demand from team, customers and partners, outside a select few, is not great. Nothing to do with 70’s culture.