Hard Pill to Swallow

I asked for feedback from Delaware and it was a bit difficult to hear that some of what I thought were my strengths didn't go over quite so well. I'm planning to use this and work on my interview skills as much as possible while I prepare for future on-campus interviews once I have time to thoroughly process the response. I'm probably going to have second thoughts about this later, but I want to share the constructive part of the feedback here and welcome any suggestions particularly from those that I've worked with in the past.


In comparison to the other applicants we interviewed, you certainly seemed to have more orientation experience on paper, but in person I felt as though you didn’t share very much with us about your specific skills and more importantly specific examples of how you put your skills into practice. I think being able to give specific, concrete examples when answering interview questions is pivotal and shows the interviewers that you have actually done or put into practice the more theoretical concepts you’re talking about. At times, It also seemed as though you weren’t as prepared or polished as some of the other candidates we saw. I would recommend utilizing a mock interview with a career counselor if you’re able so that you can really observe yourself in an interview. It may help you to identify areas or question answers that you can strengthen.

Also, the feedback I received from some of the people you met included reservations about your ability to multi-task and handle difficult situations/conversations. It may be that you were unprepared for their questions, but because so much of orientation work requires these two very important skills, I would recommend thinking about how you could provide more detailed explanations and examples of your abilities in these 2 areas.

The student leaders really connected with you, but several of the professional staff commented that they didn’t feel you had much energy or charisma. I can appreciate that you may have been exhausted due to your injury, but I think your energy level may have affected the way you were perceived. Overall, you seem like a great person with really solid orientation programming experience, but I think you need to really sell yourself and have confidence in your abilities.