Hello!
I totally get what you mean - the timeframe between feedback and the next application round can feel super short. You don't necessarily need huge new experiences to show growth, and what helps is demonstrating that you've reflected on the feedback and taken practical steps to address it.
For example, some common feedback areas that you might encounter could be:
- Motivations - I'd take the time to reflect on your vacation scheme and the parts that really stood out to you, and use those to frame your motivations for this application. It's all about showing tailored motivations based on your previous experiences, both at the firm and in other roles. Linking these and your future career aspirations should show your clear motivations and why that firm is the best fit for you.
- Commercial Awareness - this is a tricky one, and I know it can be difficult to display growth in this in such a short period of time. This was a major one for me, and to improve, I started listening to various podcasts (mainly the FT News Briefing) and competed in BIUCAC. Whilst it may not be possible for you to get involved in a commercial awareness competition before submitting your application, I'd still look into them as they're a great way of improving your commercial awareness and it'll be immensely helpful for later application stages (e.g. interviews and assessment centres) and will show that you have taken steps to address the weakness.
- Written Tasks - again, this is one where it might be difficult to demonstrate an improvement in earlier stages, such as the application form. However, if you can complete a few practice exercises online, this will be great exposure to then start scoring higher in assessment centres and on vacation schemes. I'm happy to go into more detail about how to tackle written exercises if that would be useful!
- Group Exercises / Negotiations - I'd reflect on your contributions and consider how you come across in a team, e.g. contributing ideas, listening actively, and making sure you add value without dominating. Even just showing you've reflected on your style and tried to improve goes a long way!
In terms of showing that you've taken all of this into consideration, some will come more naturally than others (e.g. motivations and commercial awareness). For the others, this could be discussed in an interview (i.e. "Tell us about a time when you received constructive feedback" or "Tell us about a weakness") by highlighting that you reflected on the feedback that they gave. This shows that you really took the previous feedback on board and made an effort to improve.
Also, in relation to mentioning the vacation scheme, I agree with
@ZNadeem - definitely bring in your previous experience with the firm when writing your application, and at later stages!
I hope that all makes sense, and answers your question!
