[sam85]

I was hoping there were some managers on this forum that would be willing to offer me some advice on how to get feedback from my manager and/or one of my supervisors from my recent internship. The internship was at a large Fortune 500 company. I loved working for the company, so I was hoping to get a full-time job there. Since my internship, I’ve applied to several positions and have been rejected from all of them. Meanwhile, I found out that the other interns that I worked with had interviews with the company, two even getting full-time positions. These positions are the same positions that I applied for.

Needless to say, I am very frustrated. I always showed up to work early, completed my assignment on time, volunteered to take on extra work, and got good reviews from my boss in my exit interview. I’m just plerplexed why I’m the only one of the group that can’t get an interview, especially since one of the full-time employees told me that he was stunned that the one intern got a full-time job before me because she was so awful and unprofessional. Is there a way to ask someone for feedback to see what is going on? I’d like to know even if its just so I can apply the feedback to a future role at a different company.

[Anonymous]

Did you have a manager or supervisor that you felt you particularly connected with? If so, I'd reach out to them and say something along the lines of “I really enjoyed working with you and gained a lot of respect for you during the time we worked together. I would appreciate some career advice – would you be able to meet me for coffee/lunch/drinks (depending on your preference and the type of relationship you had)?” Then, I'd ask them for general career advice, feedback on strengths and weaknesses that they observed of you during their time working with you, etc. You can also during the conversation ask them if they have any insight into what may have helped or hurt your ability to get a full-time job with the company. However, I wouldn't make the conversation all about that. Sometimes people who were in a position to have some say in the hiring may be uncomfortable discussing why you weren't hired, though they'd be happy to give you advice which could help you get hired next time.

Part of why I suggest this as a face-to-face thing, too, is because a former manager may be reluctant to put into writing anything with a former employee, because in this day and age so many times an error in word choice can result in law suits. You'll get more candid, honest answers face-to-face. You'd posted previously about a physical disability that you were worried may be affecting your job-search. Especially with this being a factor, a manager may be hesitant to talk about why you weren't hired, since they'd be worried something might sound discriminatory, but if they liked you and you liked they, they might be happy to talk with you about your career path, and through that conversation you might be able to find out what you could have done that would have improved your odds of a full-time offer. (Note how I phrased that as the positive instead of the negative, which is also how they'd be more likely to answer it – “you didn't get the job because ___ ” isn't like to be said, but “your odds would have been better if ___” might be said.)

[Author]

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