How should you deal with feedback?

If you’ve received feedback following a university interview, make sure you do something with it! Feedback can be invaluable, especially if you’ve not got a place on the course and you want to improve for further interviews. Below we cover some ideas of what to do with your interview feedback.

• Acknowledge your feelings – first of all, take stock of your feelings. It is so easy to see a piece of corrective feedback and feel embarrassed and annoyed at yourself for where you slipped up. This is completely normal! Acknowledge it and move on – don’t let it stop you from using that feedback to improve.
• Decode your feedback – use the information in the previous step to make sure you know exactly what your feedback is telling you, both positively and constructively
• Make an action plan – note down what you have done well in interviews and what you need to improve upon. Think about whether there are any themes – are any errors mainly connected to a lack of knowledge? Or perhaps a lack of confidence? Finally assess how you can improve on these areas and use that to shape your interview preparation going forward.
• Ways to improve – look in detail at what you can do for the next interview. Speak to your careers advisor, or tutor at college or sixth form; practice mock interviews with a friend or family member; use this course and other helpful advice from approved providers like UCAS, TheUniGuide and individual universities; or seek support from subject tutors to improve your knowledge and understanding in certain areas.
• Try not to let it knock your confidence – try to see corrective feedback as a positive. It’s not there to upset you, but to help you improve. See any setbacks or rejections as a challenge and use it to build resilience. At one time or another all of us will experience interview rejection, whether that be for a university course or for a job, so let this be a learning curve.

Has this made you look at feedback differently? If you have already received interview feedback before, what did you do with it at the time, and what might you do differently following this course? Share your thoughts in the discussion below!