Do Job Interviews Have To Be So Grueling?

It's an amazing thing, really, the degree of stress one feels when preparing for a job interview, especially when:

1. You've been out of work for two-plus years.
2. You know that there are scads of well-qualified candidates being interviewed for the same job and
3. You're feeling rusty because you haven't been called for an interview in awhile.

Regardless of how well I've prepared for a particular interview, the dominant thoughts in my head on the day of the interview all sound something like this:

I don't want to do this. I don't have to go. I can just not show up. I don't want to go. Why do I have to do this? I don't have to do this. No one's making me do this. Why do I have to go through this? I hate this.