How to ask for feedback after an interview

To ask for feedback after an interview, follow this guide:

Respond to the rejection.

A job rejection is never a welcome event. However, it does present a novel opportunity for you to learn from your interviewer about what was lacking in either your skills and qualifications or your interview performance. You can then attempt to grow professionally and improve your interview style, hence turning your job rejection into something positive.

When you respond to the rejection it is important that you are polite and that you thank the interviewer for their time and consideration. This is just a good business practice that also leads to the possibility of keeping this person in your professional network.

Above all, if you are going to ask for feedback on your interview, a courteous response will set the right tone for the feedback.

Explain to the interviewer why you are asking for feedback

Most candidates do not respond to rejection emails, so it's important to clarify why you are reaching out. If you explain your reasoning in a polite and concise manner, you are more likely to get an interviewer that is sympathetic to your request and may genuinely want to help you.

Explain how you are always looking for opportunities on how to learn and grow with respect to your career and the interview process. Let them know how thankful you would be if they could grant you this request.

If you explain your reasoning clearly and succinctly, this gives the interviewer a good idea of what kind of feedback would be most beneficial to you.

Seek specific advice

The more specific your questions regarding feedback are, the more likely the interviewer will respond.

If you ask a general question like "Why didn't I get the position?" the interviewer is likely to not know where to start and may not want to take the time out of their busy schedule to compose a response to that broad of a question.

Ask specific questions like "Where am I lacking in the necessary skills or experience for this job?" or "Was there a particular response I gave to a question during the interview that didn't land well?". These types of questions will put you in a better position to actually receive constructive feedback from the interviewer.

Oftentimes you will have an intuition about certain parts of the interview that didn't go well or were sub-par. Lean into this instinct when determining what specific questions you want to ask.

Close with appreciation