Asking for Feedback and Dealing with Rejection

Asking for feedback is an important part of the process.

Hearing feedback from interviewers about your interview can provide valuable insights, both for your career and your interviewing skills. Some of the benefits of asking for feedback include:

• Learning about the competition.
• Finding new opportunities
• Sorting out the roles you really want from the ones you don't
• Understanding more about what you value
• Improving your performance and learning things from each opportunity

In this section, we will discuss some strategies for asking for feedback and share some examples to help you ask for feedback.

1. Ask interviewers during the interview when they will provide feedback

When you're in the interview, ask when they will get back to you by respecting this timeframe. Hiring managers and studios who are trying to fill a position will, of course, be very busy, so try to give them a little time.

If they don't get to you by the time they mentioned, you could call or send a polite email or make a phone call:

2. If you forget to ask during the interview, call or email.

Examples

Phone call to reception:

Hi x

I had an interview with x last week, and I wasn't sure when they would get back to me. I also wanted to take the time to say thank you. Would x have time to have a brief chat?

Phone call direct to the person:

Hi x

I wanted to say thank you again for your time last week. I enjoyed learning more about your projects and the work of your practice. I'm wondering if you have a timeframe for your decision?

3. If you find out that you haven't been successful, write a thank you email to ask for feedback within 24 - 48 hours with the following structure: 

Thank your interviewer. Start off by thanking them for their time, the valuable opportunity and what you learnt during the interview. You’ll set a positive tone for the correspondence if you show enthusiasm for the practice and their work.

Express disappointment but graciously. Express that not getting the job was disappointing, but you understand. Show genuine enthusiasm for the role and interest in the company, especially if you would like to possibly pursue future opportunities with this company. You never know who these people might be talking to and they could suggest you for another role at another company where you might be a better fit.

Explain why you’re writing and ask for feedback.
Explain why you are making contact and be specific about the feedback you are seeking. If you can, mention that you’re looking for specific feedback.

Thank them again. If you really liked your interviewer, you can briefly mention a positive point from the interview or about their work.

Example:

Dear x,

I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for the chance to interview for the position of x. I appreciated you informing me so quickly that I wasn't successful.

While I am disappointed I wasn't offered a position, I wanted to say thank you for the opportunity and for sharing more about your practice and commitment to responsible design in your projects.

I’m still very interested in working for x in the future, so if any other roles that suit my skillset should come up, I'd love to hear from you. 

I'm grateful for your professionalism, and I'm wondering if you have the time, could you provide any feedback on my interview performance and job application? I’m especially curious about how my technical skills and portfolio of work could be improved.

Thanks again for your time. 

Warm regards,

x

4. Reflect on the Feedback and take it into your next job application

Reflect on the feedback you receive and see how you might use some of this feedback to make small improvements for the next interview. Sometimes we can't make the big changes straight away but we can take small steps to make small improvements little by little. It's important to look for strategies so that you don't feel too disappointed that you can't keep going. That might be making sure to stay in contact with someone who can help you with the process and help you to focus on the positive outcomes of all the experiences.