• Stephen Porter

The Night Before the Big Interview: 4 Crucial Tips

Updated: Oct 27, 2018

You've been waiting for this. Tomorrow is the big day - you've done your research on the company, you've prepared your anecdotal examples, and you've checked out the LinkedIn profiles of everyone you'll be meeting with. Nothing is going to get in the way of you crushing your final interview and landing this great new job. Except possibly lack of sleep. Or maybe subtle digestive complications. Or being late, due to wardrobe mishaps. Or crippling, soul-crushing self-doubt.

But other than that, nothing is going to get in your way! Right?

RIGHT. Here are a few things you can do the night before the interview to make sure that none of your focus and positivity is being snatched away by self-sabotaging gremlins.

1. Be Digestively Strategic

The best thing to eat the night before an interview is a full, healthy dinner with foods that you like, but that you know for sure will give you no trouble in the ol' gastrointestinal department. Nobody wants to have to deal with a grumbling stomach (or worse) during an interview. Also, neuroscience tells us that the connection between the brain and the gut is way more profound than we have yet even realized. The more regulated, happy, and nourished your body is during the interview, the more energy and attention you'll have to communicate at your best.

2. Lay out your interview outfit

The pressure is off the night before the interview. But when that alarm goes off, no matter how much time you have before you need to head out to meet your future co-workers, it's on. Why not spend some time the night before and give yourself one less thing to think about by picking out, and maybe even try on, the clothes you'll wear tomorrow. If anything is questionable, run it by your most trusted fashionista compatriots while there is still time. Once you've made your choice, be sure to include all the accessories you plan to utilize and place them all together in one neat display.

3. Plan to get a good night's sleep (but not too good!)

This one is self explanatory. If we don't get enough sleep, our brains are, again, out of their normal regulation patterns. Lack of sleep can make you spacey, forgetful, temperamental, slow, or simply lacking in energy during your interview. Too much sleep can put you into a coma-like hibernation that it can sometimes take hours to come back from. Plan to sleep the same amount you would on a night before a particularly non-stressful work day.

4. As you fall asleep, envision a successful tomorrow in detail.

This is an age-old trick, used by top-performers in every arena of life. Picturing success creates it. How? Well, if you must know, your conscious, deciding mind is leaving an imprint on your subconscious, subjective mind, which is at its most vulnerable and receptive as you fall asleep. Make sense? If not, I'm sure we'll get into that in later posts. So. . .

As you lay down in bed, picture yourself waking up happy and optimistic. Try to actually feel how you want to feel tomorrow. Picture yourself having a good healthy breakfast, a simple and smooth commute to the interview, and arriving nice and early. Picture the first moment of meeting your interviewers, the connection made, the hope and optimism they will feel in their initial impression of you. Watch the time-lapse movie of the enjoyable, informative, and engaging Q&A that will take place during your interviews, and sense how poised, relaxed, and confident you are. Notice how your memory is sharp, how your mind is clear, and how your words engender confidence and convey competence. And most importantly, see how well you'll be listening when the other person is talking (as opposed to formulating your response in advance). Wrap it up with a sense of increase and inspiration being felt by every interviewer as the meeting ends. As you see yourself leaving the building (if you're still awake at this point!) feel free to shift over to counting sheep, or what have you.


As the ever-over-quoted Abe Lincoln once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” If you take these four vital steps the night before your interview, you'll set yourself up for meaningful conversations and a swift job offer. Good luck!

#interviewing #thenightbefore

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