While notthe most common interview question, the failure questionshould you get itis rather perplexing.
This post originally appeared onThe Muse.
Its a tricky situation to be in.
You want to impress, but youre explicitly being asked to talk about something you failed at.
So, what do you do?
First things first, stay calm.
Take a deep breath and say something like, Wow, thats a great question.
Im going to have to think about that for a second.
Then, think about it for a second and follow these four steps.
Pick a Real Failure
Step one is to pick a failure.
Youre not fooling anyone.
You only need one thing to go wrong for your answer to work.
After youve picked your story, define failure in a way that works for it.
As a manager, I consider it a failure whenever Im caught by surprise.
I strive to know whats going on with my team and their work.
Tell Your Story
Now that youve established how you evaluate failure, tell the story that you chose.
Try not to spend too much time setting the stage, andget to the punch line quickly.
Start with the situation, and explain why it was challenging.
Then go into what you specifically did to try and rectify it.
Presumably, since this is about failure, you will not be successful or will only be partially successful.
Do not have a go at cover up the fact that things didnt all go as planned.
You want to wrap up with your lessons learned.
Its one of my biggest takeaways from the experience: Never make assumptions about the data.
I havent made that mistake again.
Now, I never let an uncomfortable conversation prevent me from communicating the status of a project transparently.
The failure question frequently takes people by surprise.
Even if youre prepared for it, talking about failure is difficult.
If you sandwich your story with these two components, youll definitely have a strong answer.
4 Steps for Answering Tell Me About a Time You Failed| The Muse
