Archives August 2023

Constructive criticism and feedback are vital in every aspect of your life, especially professionally. It isn’t always easy to receive, however. One of the most essential skills you need is to develop the ability to accept constructive feedback. Even when we know that the feedback is valid and necessary to stimulate growth, it is instinctive to respond with resistance. If the idea of receiving constructive criticism makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone. In this blog, we’ll look at ways to maximize constructive feedback and ensure success moving forward.

How to Accept Constructive Feedback

It’s easy to feel defensive when we hear seemingly negative things about ourselves, especially if they may be true. Even if you think it isn’t true, listen actively to it. Consider what is being said and how you can translate it into actions and behavior that improve your performance.

Ask Questions

An essential part of listening actively is asking questions that help you understand more deeply. To be genuinely open to constructive criticism, you must ask questions that help you understand the criticism more deeply. This enables you to fully absorb the feedback and be able to put it to good use. Simply saying, “Tell me more about that,” is a great way to demonstrate your desire to understand the other person clearly.

Take Notes

It is hard to remember everything you’ve heard when receiving feedback on the job. Our emotions and thoughts can hinder our retention and reduce our absorption of information. Don’t be afraid to take notes when receiving feedback. If possible, focus on one area and take notes so you can revisit the discussion later and review the feedback.

Foster a Growth Mindset

When you have a growth mindset, how you think about feedback changes. Instead of being defensive and resistant to change, you focus on improving. A positive growth mindset helps you move forward and makes you more receptive to constructive feedback opportunities. Being open to feedback also results in a more positive reaction to others giving feedback. This creates an environment of trust and positivity that encourages constructive feedback and growth for everyone.

Conclusion

Hearing constructive criticism can be challenging, but feedback is intended to stimulate growth and inspire change. If you can foster a growth mindset, take notes, and ask questions, you can put constructive feedback to good use.

Are you looking to move forward in your career? ABBTECH can help you secure your next role.

Hiring engineering talent can be challenging, especially if you are not a trained engineer. How you evaluate their skills depends on the position you’re hiring for, the types of projects they’ll be working on, and your company culture. With so many different types of engineers, you need different interview techniques to evaluate them properly.

This blog will cover three effective interview techniques that can help you evaluate an engineering candidate’s technical skills, as well as their personality and soft skills.

1. Focus on Content

Before interviewing candidates, you must decide exactly what core skills you are looking for. Look at the purpose of the engineering role and what technical or practical expertise is needed. Consider bringing in one of your senior engineers to consult about exactly what skills you’re looking for. You could also ask your whole engineering team what questions they would like to be asked to test a candidate’s aptitude for the position.

2. Be Consistent

Once you establish what you are looking for, be consistent with each candidate interview. Ask every candidate the same questions; this will allow you to effectively compare candidates and more accurately determine who fits the role.

Consistency in your interview questions helps you avoid being biased toward candidates. Prime talent may not shine on paper. Resumes, specifically educational credits and past work experience, can be impressive. However, just because a candidate looks good on paper does not mean they will be a good fit for your company and the role in question. Asking consistent questions allows you to compare candidates on a level playing field.

3. Be Creative

When it comes to evaluating engineering talent, be creative with your questions. The goal is to evaluate how a candidate will handle a problem or provide a strategy to help them succeed in the role you seek to fill. Your engineering team can be very helpful in formulating questions that determine technical skills and assess the candidate’s soft skills in handling situations.

Conclusion

Preparing an effective engineering interview takes time, patience, and focus. By focusing on the hard and soft skills needed for the role and enlisting your engineering team to help you vet prospective candidates, you can develop practical questions and techniques to interview engineering candidates and find the right fit for the job.

Let us help you hire top engineering talent! Contact ABBTECH today!