Job interviews can be tough going, even for people who don't have problems talking about themselves or striking up conversations with total strangers. While virtually any book on job hunting will recommend doing a mock interview with someone you know - practicing standard question and answer routines -- there is nothing like real first-hand experience

As far as I'm concerned, the best way to improve your interview skills, especially if you find you get very nervous and tongue-tied, is to simply go on more job interviews. If it's really bad, start with jobs you wouldn't take in a million years. That way you can stop worrying about actually getting the job and can spend your time simply experiencing the interview and trying out different choices for how to field questions. So just get yourself into at least three interviews. After the first interview, sit in your car or on the bus or at a coffee shop and try and remember everything they asked you. Write those questions down!

Now go over how you answered each of those questions and pull apart what you did right and what you did wrong. Start developing the set of questions that you'll know you get asked and start formulating your answers to them. If you come up with more than one answer for each question, you will never sound stale or rehearsed. I actually have a notebook with all my job stories written down and I re-read them 15 minutes before walking into any interview. Do the same and you will get more job offers.

Once you've been on about three interviews, you'll have heard virtually every question phrased in every possible way. Build your interview playbook from those questions and start practicing your anecdotes. Prepare an anecdote for each question about your former jobs. You can now walk into all your important interviews ready to respond to the scripts. And remember to be flexible. You should know your stories well enough that you can adapt them to each situation so they sound unique and not like a spiel.

You can practice your interview technique with friends or family, talk to yourself in a mirror or read lots of books about interview techniques, but when it comes down to it there is no experience like an actual job interview. Think of even failed job interviews as a learning opportunity and get what you can out of the experience so you'll be better prepared for the next one.