“Tell me about a time you failed,” or some variation of this question is considered by many applicants to be the most dreaded interview question. But this question is not asked to make the applicant embarrass himself. Rather, the interviewer asks this question with some hidden questions in mind. And that’s the key towards giving a proper answer to this question: knowing what the interviewer is really asking.
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There are good reasons why your answer to this question can be incredibly telling. So, let’s start there. When the interviewer asks this question, what are they really hoping to learn?
Generally speaking, this:
- Do you have humility?
- Are you comfortable with the idea of failure?
- Are you reflective of your own failures?
- Do you take accountability?
- Do you receive and take action on feedback?
- Have you learned something from the experience?
Understanding that these are the unasked questions, your job now is to choose the right example and use it to tell the story in a way that delivers on all of the above.
Rachel Cooke gives us tips on how to compose a great answer to this question. See them over at QDT.
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Source: neatorama