Is it possible to get feedback after an interview?

Dear Moses,
I have been applying for jobs for sometime. However, most times I don’t get anything like feedback. So it’s hard to know whether to move on after that interview. At what point do you give up after an interview? Is it also possible to get feedback? Solomon.

Dear  Solomon,
You are among the privileged few job seekers who have gone past the sieving process of the multitude of CVs employers receive everyday and actually get to be invited for an interview. Getting a foothold into the doorway of a prospective employer can be the game changer in your life if you have prepare  better to impress your potential suitors. 
That in itself is a big win. The problem you are faced with now is that you are yet to learn how to turn the opportunity offered in the interviewing room into a job.  You sound comfortable with waiting for employer’s calls to give you feedback as you continue escorting better prepared and successful candidates to their dream jobs.  If you don’t watch out, you might turn out like the young woman who becomes content to play bridesmaid to all her friends as they get married, one by one. 

Clearly, you have not invested in yourself to learn how to prepare for an interview and emerge the successful candidate. I know of some candidates who only earnestly pray for a chance to enter that interviewing room and turn the tables on the interviewers! Candidates who impress during interviews don’t wait for an employer’s call to give them feedback. They leave the interviewing room with the job offer.

Solomon, my advice is that instead of trying to find out when to move on after the interview, you should take time and invest in yourself to learn how to turn the interview into a job.  A job interview is your only chance at a first impression.  It’s your time to showcase the skills, experience and knowledge you’ve gained thus far in your career.

  It can push your career into exciting new directions, or send you back to the drawing board. A first impression is a lot harder to overcome than to create. Studies show that first impressions are solidified within seconds of seeing someone. You don’t even have to interact with another person for them to make snap judgments about you. The best thing you can do for yourself ahead of a job interview is to prepare for it twice as much as you think you might need to.

Moses Ssesanga,
Head of Human Resource, 
NMG Uganda
[email protected]