I am not going to lie. Job interviews can be nerve wracking. But there are some things that you can do in order to prepare yourself better for one, and here are ten things that could help you towards getting that job that you want to have.

• Get a decent amount of sleep the night before. It won’t do you any good if you’re falling asleep on the way there or during the interview. Make sure that you’re well rested and that you set an alarm to get up and give yourself ample time to get ready and to get there early.
• Pick out the clothes that you’re going to wear to the interview the day before the interview, that way you’re not scrambling looking for that perfect top that you know would go great with those black dress pants. Also, make sure that your clothes are free of wrinkles (iron them, if necessary) and that your shoes look clean.
• Make sure that your hair is neat and tidy. Keep the make-up the minimal (unless, of course, you’re interviewing for a position as a make-up artist, in which case it may be appropriate to show off your skills, or not. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been interviewed to be a make-up artist). Make sure you brush your teeth, keep your nails clean, keep the body odour in check – just the usual personal hygiene check.
• Make sure that your cell phone is off during the interview. Do not be listening to your mp3 player while you’re waiting to be called by the receptionist. Make sure all of your electronics are tucked away in your purse and set to silent (not vibrate) or turned off. And in the event that you forget and your cell phone does go off, excuse yourself, turn it off, and get back to the interview.
• It can be helpful to bring a copy of your resume and cover letter, in case the person interviewing you has misplaced it, you can easily hand them a copy for them to read over and ask you questions from during the interview.
• When you’re walking into an interview, be confident. Shake their hand when introducing yourself and make sure that you address the person with the correct name, you don’t want to fumble before you even sit down. So just make sure you know what their name is (and how to pronounce it) prior to going up and going ‘Good morning, Mr. Smith’ only to find out that it’s pronounced some other way.
• Do not, under any circumstances, fidget. If you’re the fidgety type (i.e. you twiddle your thumbs, twirl your hair with a finger, drum your fingers against the surface of a desk) practice not being fidgety! Doing nervous actions in front of someone will basically scream that you’re nervous. Plus, it’s just bad manners to be drumming your fingers against someone else’s desk.
• When the interview is complete, it is considered polite (and possibly even excepted) for you to thank them for their time and say that you look forward to hearing from them. Just be sure to rehearse it a bit if you’re the type to forget which words go where.
• A few days after the interview, sometimes it’s a good idea to call to thank the interviewer again for their time. This way they’re likely to remember you as the one who called to thank, again, and they might even end up pulling out your resume to look at again if they need a visual reminder as to who you are. Be sure to sound confident on the phone, thank them for their time, pronounce everything correctly and just be polite (and yourself).
• And last, but not least, if you wrote down something that stretched the truth on your resume, please, at the very least, be familiar with what lie you told. It’d be humiliating and embarrassing to yourself to be like “Uhhhhhhh…?” when the interviewer asks you about the three years you took off to going a missionary group building schools when you really spent those three years living in your parents’ basement, trying to find a job. Actually, better yet: just don’t write down any lies on your resume. That’s the best way to be prepared for any question that the interviewer asks you. Have everything on there be the truth and you’ll be fine.