How do I talk about my biggest failure in an interview?
When an interviewer asks about a failure, they really want to get to know the depth of your character - what you do when placed in challenging situations, how you handle conflict, and how you react when faced with failure.
Do you become more motivated, deciding to attack your next project with renewed zeal and enthusiasm?
Or do you suffer from a bruised ego, deciding to go a different professional route after one round of disappointment?
Find strength in your failure.
Admitting your failure is not a sign of inadequacy - contrary to popular belief. In fact, having the courage to admit that you failed at something is a major sign of confidence and commitment to your task at hand. If you can show the interviewer(s) how you were able to find strength and encouragement even in the midst of disappointment, then they will be able to see how you will likely react if dealing with similar situations once hired.
Don't be afraid to go into detail about why a particular professional or personal project failed, what part you played in its flop, and any mistakes you made along the way. Nobody is perfect all the time and very few employees have a 100% track record of project success.
While talking about a failure with an interviewer to whom you only want to show your best side may seem counterintuitive and make you feel vulnerable, it's important because of its ability to illustrate the strength of your true character when faced with a major challenge.
Use the STAR method for structure. It's a brilliant way of organizing your answer to behavioral interview questions in an impressive and thorough manner:
Situation: This is the backstory, the who, what, where, when.
Task: What was your part to play in this situation, your assigned role, and how were you able to turn this into an opportunity.?
Action: What were the steps you took to solve this challenge? Did you call on the help of others? Overcome roadblocks? Anything unique about your actions/method worth mentioning?
Results: What were the tangible results of your work? How were things better off because of what you did? What lessons did you learn?
By using these four components to shape your anecdote, it’s much easier to share a focused answer, providing the interviewer with a digestible but compelling narrative of what you did. The interviewer can follow along, but also determine based on your answer how well you might fit with the role.
Example:
"Recently, I was hired to complete a project for an important client. I was offered the opportunity to add other employees to my team for the job, but instead, I chose to take the majority of the work on by myself. Believing, mistakenly, that if I wanted it done right "I would have to do it myself." The workload proved to be too much. The project failed the first time around and I ended up having to hire other team members when I should have had the original project already completed. Together, though, we did end up bringing the project to completion. Bouncing back from that mistake was a huge hit to my ego but I have learned since then, that teamwork, delegation, and working seamlessly with others, is sometimes the best and only way to accomplish large tasks such as the one I was assigned."
The STAR interview process for answering behavioral interview questions might seem a little overwhelming at first. But it will become second nature with a little practice. And make no mistake, practicing is definitely something you should do.
When you are asked about a failure in an interview, it's important not to describe a failure that can seriously embarrass you. Rather, you want to show something where you made a mistake and were able to overcome it, learned from it, and will perform better in the long run.
Then you want to tell a story of a situation where you made that mistake, how you reacted to it, gathered information, feedback, advised a plan to correct that mistake, and the steps you took to correct for it.
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