My Experience With Job Hunting As An Introvert

Recently I've been looking for a new job. It's proven to be a huge challenge for me and I'm just writing this to tell anyone who is going through this that you are not alone. This is by no means my way of blaming others for not understanding me but to maybe let it be a small window into my life as an introvert.

Phone Interviews

Iusually don't do well at phone interviews because the amount of stress and nerves minus the body language can easily be read as someone who is not interested or is not prepared.

Interviews

I have been in situations that after researching the company, preparing in front of the mirror and standing in a superwoman pose I went into the office with total confidence. After asking to be seated I've started sweating and getting a panic attack and the only thing that I could remember was to smile. so the whole interview I would smile like a creep and after saying goodbye all the answers would come to me.

Being Judged by a 15 Minute Interaction

I understand that people would want to be around others with a bubbly personality and I have accepted that in my social interactions. ( I do have a lot of close friends) However, I'm having a harder time understanding why the fact that I am shy in the first 15 minutes that I see someone new makes me a bad candidate for a professional job. Especially since my job is social media related and is not a customer-facing job.

Having The Nerves Interpreted as Not Being Confident

The hardest thing that I had to learn in America was that being confident is sometimes more important than being capable. I am 100% confident in my work, I've had my photos used by huge brands on Instagram. I see the analytics of our company and I've been to interviews that the interviewer immediately remembered my portfolio. Even though all this boost my confidence I have a hard time getting it across because of my shyness. I remember once after 1 minute of walking in I was told that they needed someone with more self-confidence. Was I able to defend myself? no, because I was fighting the urge to cry.

Understanding The Situation

I know that many successful people are introverts. I also know that it was my choice to chose my passion over careers that might have worked better for me like accounting. What is there left to do? I will keep on trying and hope that someone would see my experience and give me chance to warm up and show my personality as people have in the past. I will keep on improving myself and finding ways to better deal with interviews. I might have to try harder than an extrovert but I'm sure that I'll get there and so will you :)