How do you do at interviews?

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I've never had an interview for a job before and am scared I'd get some bad anxiety. Having to "sell yourself" is something I'd imagine is hard for most aspies. How do you do it?

I usually report to someone that I have arrived (in case there is a helpdesk or such).
When I meet the person I have the interview with I shake their hand (not that I want to), look at their supraorbital ridge, and introduce myself.
I then listen to any information the interviewer tells me about the location we will be vacating for the application.

When we sit down I just scan the person's forehead, so that it seems like I make eye-contact. Alot of the time I look away, because I fear eye-contact, but I try to maintain the 'scanning'. I am always anxious, but I can remain seemingly calm - but when I get back home I will have a massive headache. During the conversation I simply answer the questions the person asks me, but I try to emphasize my positives more than my negatives. Of course, I will not lie about negatives when asked about them.

As far as actually 'selling yourself' goes: I do not quite understand the concept of it. As far as I can tell people inflate their abilities alot to make it seem like they are an expert at everything. It's as if they feel like they have to radiate some sort of grandeur. I do not do this, because stating that my abilities are larger than they actually are would be lying. Therefore, there would be higher expectations of me than I could fulfill, which might lead to mutual dissatifaction. This is my personal perspective and opinion on the aforementioned 'selling one's self' process. I do not know what other's think, much as I do not know what the executive mind thinks before/ during/ after the process.

On a side note: I'm curious to know how others view the 'selling' process.

Having hired hundreds of people over the years at my job, my advice at a job interview is to convince the interviewer that you can do the job better than any of the other candidates. So, prepare by asking yourself why you are the best person to do the job in question, and be able to state those reasons clearly and concisely.

If you are asking about technique rather than substance, my recommendation would be when asked a question, to take a deep breath,and answer the question as directly as you can without offering any more or less information than the interviewer requests. It also pays to keep your answers as brief as possible. Don't volunteer any information not requested, though you may be able to make yourself look good by being able to ask the interviewer an intelligent question if asked to do so.

Good luck!

Another tip is to look at some aspect of the job or company that you feel is a good fit, and be sure to include it in the why would you work for us question. Also, the stuff said by thelibrarian definitely works.

Do not get into the habit of thinking that 'this interview is the make or break one'. Think of doing interviews as like a job. The more you do, the better you get. There are plenty of dvds and municipal resources about job interviewing put out by hr people. I would avail yourself of these resources. Practice, practice, practice.

I got into my current job after four years of contracts and over fifty interviews. Each interview provides a forum for learning. I gained skills in eye contact, hand shaking, intonation, smiling, and other areas that I simply would not have had had I not done all of the interviews that I have done.

If you do not get the job, it is perfectly all right to ask for areas for interview improvement. On a few occasions, the person actually scheduled a time with me to go over how I should have answered the questions, or what aspects of my communication needed to be improved. If someone takes the time to go over what you need to improve on, treat that opportunity as having been a really good one to get to know yourself better.

Putting it this way, I don't focus on selling myself. I focus on knowing what it is that they need, and getting genuinely excited over some parts of the job ad. At this point in my career, I can say that I have some degree of experience, though I am still relatively new, and I could carry off knowing what they want from me. It's taken fifty interviews, but at the last hiring round I did, both jobs were interested enough to contact my references. This was over a year ago, when I last needed work. I am not considering moving now. I am reasonably certain that, in both cases, I would have gotten the job, but the contract job contacted me regarding references right after I had been hired fulltime permanent, so ... I ended up where I am now.

That being said, if you want some really hilarious interview situations and some severely ludicrous stories, just ask.