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Anon998438 · 24d ago
Question about phone call anxiety: how do I sound more confident when I am dying inside?
I'm a school leaver so I don't have much work experience and that's affecting my confidence, but mostly I just panic when I have to talk to an interviewer on the phone. I know it sounds stupid, but I hate my voice and how I sound. How do I create a more confident 'phone persona'? I think it's killing my chances at getting a job.
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Corina · 16d ago
Hi Anon, why dont you ask chatgpt to help. Use the voice function. Ask it to pretend they are a potential employer interviewing you and you can even ask it to tailor the questions specific to roles you are interested in - include the job post link. That should definitely help you feel more prepared and confident 😊
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Anon550185 · 17d ago
Stand up!
Can make such a difference on your feet and it lets you gesture with your free hand when you need to punctuate a point.
Just avoid saying "like this" and making shapes with your hand.
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Anon206973 · 15d ago
Chief Executive Officer
Practice answering questions in the car or when you’re alone. It helps to hear your voice out loud. Get some sample questions from Chat GPT. Put the role in, and the business website, and ask it to act like an HR Manager interviewing you for the role. Finally, you’re not alone. Every single human out there gets nervous. It’s ok at the start to say “sorry I’m a bit nervous” if you need to. A good employer will appreciate the openness. Best of luck.
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Anon343872 · 20d ago
Can totally relate to this and I reckon most people can (some are just better at hiding it). Might sound silly but I used to practice answering questions with a mate and record the conversation. Everyone's different but for me writing down what I wish I'd said really helped my appear calm when the interview happened.
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Grace · 15d ago
Customer Service Role
I have been diagnosed with anxiety and I found that practice helped me. NOT trying to memorize answers because when I fumbled it made me stop in my tracks and loose my thought process because I was just reciting instead of answering. I have notes up when I do phone interviews. And genuinely lots of practice answering random questions. I still slip up and get brain fog but it’s helped a lot. I am a lot better with interviews now at 25 than I was at 18.
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Caleb · 7d ago
Captain
Firstly it’s okay to feel like that. These are two ways to combat anxiety/confidence
- Stand up, close your eyes and breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth x3. (Big breaths). It’ll calm you instantly. Focusing on breathing makes you forget about what you’re worried about and thinking about.
- Have someone you trust be with you, either if it’s a call or driving you to the interview. It’s always comforting knowing you’re not alone.
You’ve got this, calm, collected, confident 🫡
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Joanne · 7d ago
Receptionist and Administrator
hi Anon, you are not alone. my son is 19 and has no hope of finding a job as he has anxiety and bearly goes out of the house. he has a medical certificate from the Dr but I would love for him to have the confidence to get a job but it's a grim market atm he has no qualifications, experience or skills and he does not like talking to people. all I can advise is you read and research as much as you can re job hunting. take the free courses re CV's building your confidence and self esteem.
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Donna · 13d ago
Master of Change and Organisational Resilience
I used to ramble when I spoke until I got some structure to what I was saying, e.g. I started with a greeting, then thank you then overview/format and so on. When interviewing you might want to think about paraphrasing the question back as the start of your answer. Practising a structure where you respond using the question they ask, as the start of your answers. There’s a risk you sound robotic after a while, but you can pick and choose when to use it. Gives you some time to think.
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Carmen · 15d ago
Customer Service Representative
Hey - as a 25 year old who has experienced this.
Just get out of your own head.
Go for a walk while you’re talking or do something with your hands.
Be confident in who you are - if you don’t know the answer, it’s okay just say
“yeah I’m not actually too sure about that but I can relate to something similar where….”
Biggest advice - stop being mean to yourself and start thinking you deserve better.
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Charis · 6d ago
Warehouse Worker
We all have a beginning man best thing to do is to keep doing it (this can also apply to many other things) the only way to get better at something is to take action. failing, making mistakes is part of the process of gaining experience so long as you take something from it.
all the best 👍
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