It was Ken Blanchard who stated that feedback is the breakfast of champions, and this couldn’t be more true for a candidate in the job search process… I can’t tell you the number of times a week I ask a candidate who has been on an interview with one of my clients if they asked, “how do I stack up with the other candidates you interviewed?… what do I need to do to get the job?”… Even though my coaching and our online interviewing course, www.thejobsearchsolution.com, preaches and teaches these essential questions, even experienced candidates don’t seem to do it…
The excuses I hear for not asking either or both of these questions, is basically this lack of courage. This is ridiculous…. People say things to me like, “well it just didn’t seem appropriate”… or “we ran out of time and or, I didn’t get a chance to ask him”… I hear any kind of cockamamie excuse you can imagine for simply not having the guts to ask for FEEDBACK!!!
You gotta ask an interviewing authority, “how am I doing?…how do I stack up with the others that you’ve spoken to?…” Feedback, feedback, feedback… you gotta get it…
I know it takes courage and I know you run the risk of being rejected right there on the spot…for example “well, you really don’t have what we’re looking for”… or… “I just don’t like you and I like other candidates better”…but you gotta ask…remember “no” is the second best answer you can get
Getting feedback is especially important if, after the whole interviewing cycle, you don’t get hired… you’ve got to do your best to call or write the hiring authority and simply ask why you didn’t get hired… you can ask it in a really nice way, something like, “I really appreciate the opportunity to have interviewed with you and your firm… I know that I would’ve made a great employee and I would still love to work at your company. I understand that you’ve chosen someone that you think might be a better and I respect that. Please, do me a favor and explain to me what I might have done better or differently in order to get the job. Please give me honest feedback on my interviewing. Any help you might give me will help me in other interviews.” Don’t hesitate to ask for this kind of feedback two or three times if you don’t get a response after the first request.
Most interviewing and hiring authorities are nice people and they’re willing to give you that kind of feed if you simply ask. But you’ve got to ask!
Feedback is one of the most important ways that you can get better in your job search.
