When we think about looking for work, interviews, and the first few months of working in a new job, we naturally concern ourselves with making ourselves look good. This particularly true in the interview stage where we are trying to sell ourselves and that means avoiding discussions of failure as much as possible.
But you may be missing a trick when you gloss over failures and highlight only the best. And some employers have realized that, asking things like a time when you failed in a goal or how you handled a seemingly impossible problem. What they are looking for is how you handled a flop because the reality is we won’t always be perfect all the time. It also looks at things like how we handle negative feelings like anxiety, fear, and even anger.
But of course employers aren’t looking for you to throw a pity party for yourself or to cast blame on someone else. Instead, they are trying to see what you learned from your mistake and how you would apply that learning to another similar incident to prevent it from happening again. After all, nobody is perfect and mistakes can happen so pretending otherwise is unrealistic.
So how can you handle this sort of question?
- Ahead of your interview, think about a time in a previous job where you made a mistake. Outline what the mistake was and take responsibility for your end of it. There’s no point in fibbing; it’s already happened after all
- Outline what you learned from it. Were you mentored by someone to help you through? How did you solve the problem after the error? Who helped you? What did you learn after?
- What would you do differently if that problem or event happened again? (or something similar)
The most important thing is to be able to use STAR to organize your thoughts around a mistake: Situation (What happened), Task (What you were meant to be doing), Action (What actually happened), Result (What you learned from it). This is a bit of a twist on the usual STAR method for interviews, but it’s as effective.
It may seem a bit counter intuitive to be ready to discuss your failures, but for many employers, a discussion about a mistake gives them all manner of insights into what type of employee you will be. It’s also useful for you because no one can be perfect all the time and some our best learning moments are when we fall on our face. Being able to face that be open about it makes you more employable, more trainable, and more professional. So be ready to talk not just about how amazing you are, but also times when you weren’t so fantastic.
Good luck out there!
