It's normal to experience nervousness when applying for a new job. Psychologists report that hunting for jobs is one of the most common causes of emotional agony.

But for some people, it's more than just ordinary nervousness. They are actually terrified to a point where their fear gets out of control and renders them unable to perform at a job interview.

This is an unacceptable situation, because what usually happens to these people is this: they don't get the job they deserve, but instead some douchebag who is great at getting jobs, bad terrible at getting jobs done.

This won't be good for anyone: neither the employer (who makes an expensive mishiring), nor you (who will have to settle for a unsatisfying job), nor the douchebag (who won't be able to perform on the job and be receiving his pink slip soon enough).

Here's some tips to help you conquer job interview anxiety:

• Practice mock interviews with friends, family members, colleagues or even career coaches.
• Videotape yourself when doing mock interviews and study the videos carefully, observing your body language and your sound of voice. Make notes what you can improve and practice in front of the mirror. Then, move on to the next session, videotape yourself again and watch for improvements.
• Also allocate some time for mental practice. Visualize yourself doing a successful interview. What would you look like in a successful job interview? What would you move like? What would your face look like? How would your voice sound?
• Use hypnosis to eliminate job interview anxiety. This is a fool-proof method that will literally install the confidence in you to present your talents in an adequate manner so you can land that job.
• Visit the interview site a couple of days before the actual interview takes place. Just familiarize yourself with the surroundings. This way, it won't be a completely new and strange environment to you the day you walk there. Subtle, but effective psychological effect.
• Research the company that's going to interview you beforehand. Visit their website and see what industry magazines and companies like D&B have to say about them.
• Decide beforehand what your salary expectations are. If you already walk into the interview with a number in mind, you won't have to break out in cold sweat when you're getting asked by your potential employer during the interview. My recommendation is to look for the industry average and add a little bit more to it.
• Exercise / have a workout before the interview. This will help you stay calm and relaxed.
• If you gave a wrong answer during the interview, just take a deep breath and say: "I'm sorry, that wasn't what I intended to say. This job get's me excited. Let me try to say that again." And then say it again the right way.
• Apply for jobs that you are really not interested in. This way you can practice on "boring" jobs that you really don't care about. It's best to do this after you've done a couple of mock-interviews and videotaped yourself. Because with such an interview, it's a lot more realistic than if you practice with a friend. And you got nothing to lose because you don't want that job anyway.

I hope you found these tips useful. If you need additional help, have questions or comments - maybe your own methods of conquering job interview anxiety - please use the comment section below to share it with me and others!

Thank you, and all the best of luck for pursuing the job of your dreams!