Reflect on Feedback and Advice Received During Targeted Outreach

While searching for an internship or a job we often want to go faster to reach the finish line, however, there is value in pausing to reflect and adapt based on the advice you receive from industry professionals.  Building a habit of reflection early, will make it more sustainable during hectic times of the year when you have even more competing priorities.  

Reflect & Adapt: 

  • Reflect prior to each informational conversation. What do I hope to learn from this conversation? Will I explore a new field, organization, or role of interest to me or deepen my knowledge? Do my goals for this conversation align with my prepared questions? If not, mix it up!
  • Use systems to track your meetings and takeaways from each conversation. As you are chatting with industry professionals, you will receive a lot of advice. While it can be overwhelming, create and use a knowledge management system, such as the meeting tracker in Interstride to record and track advice shared during the process.
  • Reflect on what you learned during the conversation using the reflection prompts to get started. What were the exciting parts of the role? What were the least exciting parts? What new information did you discover? What are potential obstacles? How does this conversation help you to clarify your own career objective? 🛑 Stop & Reflect Further – If you did not receive any new information from this conversation. Take a moment, and consider why not? Revisit your goals of the conversation and questions. It might be time to level-up your questions that lead your discussions into learning areas.
  • Strategize and prioritize your next steps. What do I plan to do differently based on what I learned? What additional information do I need? Based on your answers, plan your next steps through actionable goals.
  • Build a habit of reflection into your career search. Keep a record or journal of the input and feedback you receive using Excel, Meistertask (mind mapping tool – free through Duke OIT), the Interstride meeting tracker, or a notebook. Reflect on your discussions to pull out themes to adapt your search. Similar to reviewing your class notes, review your feedback and input conversation notes on a bi-weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly schedule. 

This post is part of Season for Connection 2021, a winter break initiative focused on how to conduct outreach and connect with professionals in a way that gets results. View the launch post here to see all articles compiled in an Outreach Guide.

By Erin Carlini (she/her)
Erin Carlini (she/her) Assistant Director, Engineering Master's Career Services & Professional Development