There are two types of people in this world: people who admit that job interviews scare them and others who lie about it. The fact is, everyone gets nervous before a job interview so take heart. Even people with the best interview skills in the world feel that stress. But there’s a big difference between feeling interview stress and letting it control the outcome of an interview. By far, the most important way of controlling this is through preparation.

Without a doubt, one of the reasons so many people feel overwhelming stress when going into a job interview is because they feel wholly unprepared and are anticipating things going poorly. This isn’t to say that butterflies in the tummy are a sign of ill preparation. As mentioned before, it’s only natural to be nervous. But that nervousness could be significantly decreased with thorough preparation. So how do you prepare for a job interview? You practice, that’s how. Over and over. Here are a few tips for how get started.

• Enlist a trusted friend, co-worker or mentor to help you prepare by running a series of mock interviews where your friend plays the interviewer. In order to better prepare for a real-life scenario and sharpen up your interview skills, have them draw up a list of difficult, thought-provoking questions that you’ll have to answer on the fly.

• Work on your handshake. This might sound silly to some, but a lot of prospective employers are put off by people who offer weak handshakes or, worse yet, sweaty palms.

• Practice your vocal delivery. True, this isn’t a talent competition and you’re not going to be asked to stand in the center of the room and perform. But pulling off a great job interview has a lot of similarities to performance, and one of the most important parts of that is to be heard loud and clear. If you mutter when you talk, work on it. If you’ve ever been accused of being mousy, now’s the time to shake that off.

• Do a dry run. One of the biggest interview stress factors is not knowing where you’re going and getting lost on the way. You can slice away a huge percentage of the stress factor by practicing the route to your interview location so that when the day comes, that’s one less thing to fret over.

Interview stress is one of the leading causes of doing poorly in a job interview. Preparation is key to being able to take the edge off of this nervous energy and giving yourself the mental peace necessary to knock it out of the park.

Freelancers will find hundreds, if not thousands, of interview tips on the web. While these are valuable, most are targeted to general, full-time employment candidates. Creative freelancers need to develop some specialized interviewing skills because of their status as contractors.

Your game plan should reflect the focus of the freelance job interview and the type of job offered. For example, an employer seeking freelance talent to be a long-term contractor for a variety of needs, requires a different game plan than for a freelance job interview targeted to a specific project or solution.

Longer term associations typically require that candidates fit with the employer’s corporate culture. Singular project assignments usually focus on the pure talent and experience of the freelancer. Valuable interview tips for freelancers reflect the typical focus of employers hiring freelancers.

• Always be professional. While casual workplaces are now common, an interview demands that you look and act like the consummate professional. Be honest. Would you commit significant budget money to a freelancer wearing flip-flops and telling you about walking his orher dog at 3 a.m.? Probably not.
• Do your company research. Even though you may not be seeking full-time, long-term employment, your pre-interview employer research is equally important—possibly more critical. Employers viewing you as a problem-solver or independent business professional must be convinced that you understand their company and their issues. Research is the only way for you to understand the employer and the solutions they need.
• Focus on your specialty for the project. Hiring managers are always facing time challenges. Since you are interviewing with a prospective employer to solve a problem or complete a specific project, most of your other considerable talents are superfluous for your current interview. Spend this valuable time convincing the interviewer that you’re perfect for their needs.
• Concentrate on yourself. Regardless of your world-class technical skills, people still want to do business with people. Make a personal connection with the interviewer to lift you above your competition. After skills are objectively analyzed, hiring managers will typically select the candidate they like. This is natural, understandable and highly beneficial to you, if you can make a positive connection.
• Ask questions frequently. While always beneficial at interviews for full-time employment, freelancers have a much stronger obligation to use questions to enhance their image. Further, you must have full knowledge about the available project. Misunderstandings, however minor, can cause unhappy employers and prevent future candidate consideration.

Before you start with contract negotiations, make sure to look over these tips:

• Research your value. Before your first interview, talk to friends in the business and consult career websites that include any beneficial information such as salary and benefit packages.
• Assess the company’s approach. If an offer is made first make sure you listen to the way it is presented. If they are open to negotiations, they will ask you if you had anything in mind (this is when your salary negotiation skills come in handy) that you’d like to present to the table.
• When negotiating, keep different aspects of the job in mind: money, schedule, company stock, responsibilities, time off, relocation expenses, transportation, etc. You want to make sure that all aspects of the job are covered so that there are no gray areas or things that you are absolutely unhappy with.
• Once the contract is set, make sure that you repeat the offer/negotiation out loud after you hear it, and then don’t say anything until the employer does. Your pauses will make the employer mistaken it as hesitation and they may sweeten the offer. Make sure to address any concerns you may have.

Remember to focus both on the needs of your employer and yourself. A contract works both ways. With these simple tips, you should be satisfied with the outcome of that next contract you sign. Remember that contracts are a big part of your life; it will be binding you to your work place so make sure that your needs and concerns are addressed.

• “If you were to stay at your current organization, what would be your next move?”
• “Tell me your greatest accomplishment.”
• “What makes you stand out from the others?”
• “How many hours a week do you need to get your job done?”
• “Tell me about your professional experience before you went freelance.”
• “How many clients do you work with at a time?” (Your job is to convince the interviewer that you can be trusted and that the task at hand won’t conflict with anything else.)
• “How do you charge for your services?” The answer to this should always be, “It depends on the job.”
• “Here’s a sample of some work we did last year. I’d like you to look at it and critique it.” (Point out mistakes, but also find something good to say about it. Don’t be afraid to say how you would have approached the job differently.)
• “What are you reading?” (This one is often meant to discover if you’re a literate, informed person, but can also be targeted to ask things like “What books have you read about design?”)

A thank-you note used to be a way to stand out from the pack in a job interview situation. Now it’s expected in many industries, and those who don’t send one stand out in a negative way. Send separate notes to everyone who talked with you during the interview. Besides thanking them, use the opportunity to re-emphasize your skills briefly and ask again to be hired for the job. When considering how to send your note, think about the style of the organization. A very traditional and formal institution might be best thanked in a handwritten note on good stationery. A more businesslike but still old-fashioned organization might welcome a letter of thanks that’s more like a business letter, printed on a laser printer. For companies that are more technical or forward-looking, e-mail has become the best way to convey a thank-you note.

Whatever your medium, proofread your note before you send it, both for basic writing skills (spelling and grammar) and for tone. If you promised to send any information, such as samples of your work, do so promptly. If you were referred for the interview by someone in your network, be sure to thank him or her as well.

By specifically and explicitly defining the result you desire, you should attract the professionals that employ user Interface Design principles that directly relate to your company and project purpose. Interviewing professionals who know exactly what you want to achieve eliminates explanation time and general questions and answers at interviews.

This approach maximizes interview time concentrated on specific goal achievement and the candidates’ ability to do the job you want. Small talk and generalizations should be unnecessary. Your valuable time at interviews will be allocated to targeted questions and answers relating to the job at hand to determine the best usability consultant that can help you reach your objectives. Is that not the most important consideration for you?

The time you spend fully describing the job you want done delivers another benefit to you. Forced to define the exact result you want, you improve your focus and understanding of the usability job you need completed. You’ll save time, money, and aggravation by hiring usability specialists that are harmonious with your wishes.

A successful Interface Designer and client or employer relationship typically depends on good two-way communication.  Effective interview tips for clients hiring the best Interface Designers include questions that require candidates to explain their design process. Learning how to interview these specialists involves how responsive they are to your needs and how quickly they understand the way to interface the data you provide into a blend of website aesthetics (to make your website pleasing to the eye and impressive to visitors) and information retrieval (the goal is ease of user effort to get the info they want).

During the job interviews, listening closely to the substance and manner of responses from candidates will display their knowledge, expertise, and attitude. You can then determine if their behavior patterns are as accomplished as their finished products.