How to ask for and receive feedback after a job interview? Tips for eco-feedback
Many publications, studies, and speeches focus on the importance of feedback for UX designer. It affects colleagues’ engagement with your work, team effectiveness, business profitability and professional growth.
However, only some give it openly and constructively, especially regarding feedback after an interview for a UX designer position.
How to fix it? I want to share my story and discuss it with you.
Interview backstory
I was recently invited for an interview through my LinkedIn contacts.
I accept interviews from time to time to stay on top of my interviewing skills and gain new experience and feedback for future growth.
The invitation looked tempting, and the AI-generated welcome video was as personalised as possible. From the message, the company had seen the portfolio and got an idea of the work experience and skills. Overall, my first impression was positive. The company’s projects interested me, so I scheduled a time for an interview.
It was constructive and professional. The adverse response letter was even surprising. It also contrasted with the personalised invitation: general polite phrases, an address from one person, and a signature from another. In other words, it was a regular template that had yet to be proofread before sending.
Since I set goals before interviews, I asked for feedback. I am still waiting for a response.
This is very strange considering how much effort the company put into getting the candidate to interview: portfolio review, personalised video appeal, use of AI tools, etc. In IT, there are often situations where a candidate is not suitable for a position now, but he may be invited to a higher position a few months later. And he will decline because he didn’t get constructive feedback in time.
That’s why I want to raise the issue of how to give and receive constructive feedback after an interview.
What is quality eco-feedback?
For feedback to work, it must be an organic part of any company’s corporate culture.
When interviewing candidates for a UX designer position, it shouldn’t be expected if it needs to be integrated into the company’s values, policies, work, and communication approaches. Wouldn’t you agree?
In addition, feedback should be qualitative and based on three basic principles:
- Openness. Feedback is outside the hierarchy. Everyone can share their opinion, regardless of their role in the team or length of time working for the company.
- Continuity. Development at work should be continuous. Therefore, you can ask for or give feedback after any task or stage is completed: after a project launch, a presentation and, of course, an interview.
- Constructiveness. It is essential to outline a colleague’s or job candidate’s growth areas and show them the path to the next level. It is necessary to be honest, to back up your words with facts, and to name not only the weaknesses but also the strengths of a person. Nothing is worse than destructive feedback — general comments and phrases, without examples, in an indifferent pitch and lacking suggestions on improving skills.
How do you ask for feedback after the interview?
Newbies often don’t ask for feedback simply because they need to know from whom.
There are no restrictions on who to approach. It can be the HR manager who invited you for the interview, the team leader who interviewed you or other designers from the company. Each can give qualitative feedback based on their competencies: how to improve their CV, what technical issues to tighten up, how to behave better during the interview, etc.
In what form should I ask for feedback? You can ask for both written and oral feedback. Oral feedback is best received during one-on-one interactions.
How do I ask for it? You can write a message or email that says, “I would appreciate feedback on the interview.” I also prefer to be specific about the timing of the feedback and then clarify, “If there is no email/call, can I call back myself?” That kind of word-of-mouth disciplines both me and the recruiter.
How do you give feedback?
Everything changes quickly in our field: today, you ask for feedback, and tomorrow, you give it to the candidate.
That’s why it’s essential to learn how to give quality feedback. To do this, find out what purpose you are giving it for. Feedback should have a specific purpose:
- to mitigate rejection by outlining strengths and advising on a development vector,
- to encourage and inspire a colleague to do what they are good at, to emphasise their contribution to the overall project,
- prevent possible mistakes and actions, identify what can be improved and in what timeframe this needs to be done,
- stimulate growth and change, and provide the person with information for further professional development.
If your feedback doesn’t meet goals, pause and determine what you want to achieve due to the input and whether the person is ready. Especially if you want to give feedback that you were not asked for.
You can use different techniques to give constructive and ecological feedback:
- STAR. The person describes the situation (Situation), his task/role in the situation (Target), the action taken (Action) and the final result (Result). This helps them to make their judgement about what needs to be improved.
2. “Sandwich” is excellent for feedback after an interview. First, you praise the person, then point out weaknesses, suggest improvements, and end the conversation with a final praise and hope for further cooperation.
3. CEDAR. You initially tell the person what your feedback will relate to (Context), give examples of the behaviours you want to point out (Examples), together look for the reasons for the behaviours (Diagnosis), identify what actions could improve the situation (Actions), and follow up with changes after the conversation is over (Review).
Generally, each technique is effective if you understand the purpose of feedback and its value to the person and illustrate your words with examples.
I hope my experience has been helpful to you. Tell us, have you successfully gotten quality feedback after an interview? Did the feedback after the interview help you develop?
