Free resource
Interview day checklist
By Nancy Osazee, Founder
A night-before list, a small kit for noise and light, a travel buffer, and a two-minute routine for when your heart is loud. Nothing here is a treatment.
Written by Nancy Osazee, Founder of CareerPilot. This is a practical note, not medical advice and not a diagnosis. The legal points are a short plain summary, not advice about your own situation.
How to get through interview day
- Lay everything out the night before. Clothes, the route, the sheet of trigger words, a charger, and water. Do not leave it for the morning.
- Pack a sensory kit. Earplugs, a snack, water, and any fidget that is quiet. For a video call, check the light and the camera height.
- Leave a buffer. Plan to arrive early enough to sit down before you are due. For a video call, open the link ten minutes ahead and then look away.
- Use a short calm-down. Feet on the floor, one slow breath out, then read only the result line of your first story.
Night before
- Print or open the cheat sheet and read only the result lines
- Charge your phone and put the interview address or link in one note
- Set two alarms
- Choose clothes that do not itch
- Eat something you already know sits well
Sensory kit
- Water and a small snack
- Earplugs or headphones for the journey
- A pen that works
- Tissues, and any medication you already take, in its usual box
- For video: a charger, and the sheet stuck under the camera
Travel timing
Look up the journey the day before, then add a buffer you will not negotiate with. For a train, that might be one earlier service. For a drive, time to park. If you are early, sit somewhere quiet rather than walking in twenty minutes ahead and standing in reception.
A calm-down that fits in a corridor
This is not therapy. It is a sequence: both feet on the floor, breathe out longer than you breathe in, twice, then read one result line from the sheet. If you lose the question, ask them to repeat it. That is allowed.
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On CareerPilot
Pair this list with the one-page sheet of trigger words, so you are not trying to remember stories in the corridor.
Questions
What if I am already anxious the night before?
Do the list once and stop. Re-reading the whole job description at midnight rarely helps. The sheet of trigger words is enough.
Should I disclose nerves as ADHD?
Only if you want to. The checklist works either way. The disclosure guide is the page for that decision.