How to talk about your failures at an interview: opinions of HR specialists. Reviews

The Comunica agency collected the opinions of HR specialists from various companies about what tactics are best to choose when answering the question about career failures and what answer the recruiters themselves are waiting for.

The question about failures, mistakes and setbacks is quite popular in interviews. It confuses many people. Let's figure out why this question is asked and how best to answer it.

The interviewer asks questions about failures and failures to understand how you evaluate yourself, whether you are self-critical, and whether you notice your mistakes in your work. In answering this question, it is important to show that you are a normal person who has the right to make mistakes, but at the same time knows how to analyze them and draw the right conclusions from them. The answer “I don’t have such examples” or “I don’t make mistakes” contradicts the above.

What is important to consider when answering the question about failures and mistakes? Give examples only from professional activities. Don't get caught up in personal failures. One day, a candidate for an interview, in response to my question about mistakes, began to talk about family failures, divorce from his wife, and so on. I felt like a family psychologist, but the purpose of our meeting was completely different.

After you've given an example of your failure, share what you did to resolve the situation. Bad example: “I didn’t fulfill the plan to attract new clients, had a fight with my manager, fell into depression and decided to change jobs.”

A good example: “I didn’t follow through on my plan to attract new clients. After that, I analyzed my work over the past month and realized that I did not make enough cold calls. The next month I called twice as many potential clients and achieved my goals.”

My examples are quite exaggerated, but I think they reflect the essence. It is important to demonstrate to the interviewer that, despite the failure or mistake, you were able to overcome the situation and learned lessons and experiences that helped in future achievements.

Maria HandrosManaging consultant of the recruiting company Hays in Russia

Recruiters ask questions about failures at work not to remind you of unpleasant moments in your career, but to find out your attitude towards difficult professional situations and what conclusions you drew from them and how you managed to cope with them. What do you choose when the clouds gather: avoiding a problem or looking for resources to solve it?

Recently, projective questions of this kind have become increasingly popular among HR specialists. Competition is intensifying, business is becoming tougher, managers want to understand how a person will behave under stress, and whether he will be able to mobilize if he makes a mistake. And most importantly, will he be able to correct the mistake he made and take responsibility for it? For many employers, resistance to stress and the ability to work in a tense environment, as well as the ability to be responsible for decisions made, are key requirements for a candidate.

I don’t recommend denying the obvious: no one will believe that you have never had any shortcomings in your work. To claim that your professional path was ideal is not serious. In response to such statements, you can, for example, hear the question: “Are you used to working exclusively in comfortable conditions?”

When admitting your failures, it is important to focus on the knowledge gained, talk about what conclusions you made and what you learned. For example, a good answer would be: “Yes, in the beginning of my work I could not cope with the stress of speaking in front of a large number of people and once, in my opinion, I failed an important presentation. Back then I was not experienced enough and I lacked the skills. A lot has changed since then: I took several public speaking courses and gave dozens of different presentations. Now I'm sure this is no longer a problem for me."

Maxim EntezonHead of Recruitment and Personnel Development at Svyaznoy

Often a candidate has an attitude: it is better to hide anything that could somehow cast a shadow on his professional reputation during an interview. Avoiding answering about past failures may indicate that a person feels uncomfortable in a situation where they need to talk about their failures. This in itself is neither bad nor good, it all depends only on the tasks that the recruiter needs to solve.

In the competency interview technique, in addition to the fact of failure, you need to tell in detail what you did. The amount of information gained from a detailed answer to a question can tell the interviewer a lot.

From the context, you can, for example, understand that in case of failure, one applicant will strive to correct the situation himself, while the other will need external help. This way, the future employer will assess how you react to stress and whether you need control and support from management, so that if something happens you don’t lose control of the situation.

The candidate can answer that there have been no failures in his life. Let's say this is true, but then the interviewer may ask the question: what has this person really learned, is his perception of himself and the outside world adequate? The recruiter is interested in emotions - what a person felt after a failure in the past and how he feels about it now. The emotional background in work directly affects its quality, sobriety of judgment and efficiency, and failures can greatly change this background.

For example, the CEO of a trading company once had to fire the chief accountant because a woman was stealing company funds and causing direct damage to it. After this incident, he resigned himself, being in a difficult emotional state, and for six months he could not recover from it.

The thing turned out to be that during the last conversation about dismissal under the article, the accountant cried and admitted that she was pregnant and had no other means of livelihood. Analysis of this situation, the person’s actions and his experiences made it possible to make a judgment about his values, managerial approach and ability to make difficult decisions.

Vahan Darbinyansenior consultant at Fourmi Formidable recruiting agency

If a candidate comes to an interview with a pre-prepared and thoughtful presentation and gives socially desirable answers, then the question about mistakes will be quite appropriate, since the applicant will have to talk not only about his victories, but also about what he failed to achieve. This is a kind of stressful situation that allows you to return the candidate from adaptive behavior to his natural state.

This question is also appropriate if the position involves a high level of responsibility and independence in decision making. After all, mistakes often help specialists master in practice under extreme conditions skills that they would not be able to master if they had only a theoretical basis.

Admitting one’s own failures and reasoned building a logical chain of causes and consequences will demonstrate to the employer the applicant’s ability to quickly make informed decisions and the ability to be responsible for his own actions and the actions of his team.

The question “Tell me about your most serious failures” suggests many possible answers, since it does not contain any clarifying formulations and leaves room for imagination. I would recommend being specific and asking about difficult tasks, problems, and unusual situations from past experience.

By asking this question, the recruiter evaluates the candidate based on the following criteria:

1. The ability to admit your share of guilt in what happened. As practice shows, not everyone is ready to admit and analyze their mistakes, much less learn from them. Very often, applicants blame circumstances for the reasons for what happened and risk facing in the future the same problems that they could not cope with once.

2. The ability to draw conclusions from the past, even negative experiences, change the style of behavior and management, control one’s emotions - all this plays a significant role for an employee of any competence and status.

3. The level of psychological restraint and ability to cope with stress allows you to evaluate the analysis of the candidate’s attempts to find the right solution in a difficult situation.

4. How a person experiences his failures, his reaction to current events, interpretation of turning points in his career. This can show how well he meets the employer's expectations.

If you were asked this question, a bad answer would be: “There were no mistakes in my work. There were minor mistakes that were corrected in the shortest possible time.”

The right tactic is to talk about the mistake. After this, you should analyze the reasons that, in your opinion, led to this development of events. It is advisable to immediately indicate your share of the blame so that the interviewer does not ask you additional questions, and tell how you tried to find ways to solve the problem that arose.

Tatiana BelousovaHR Director of the integrated communications agency Comunica

There is a good saying from George Buckley, former CEO of 3M: “What is a resume? This is a record of all of a person’s career achievements with failures excluded.”

I think it perfectly illustrates why recruiters ask these kinds of questions. People are comfortable talking about their victories - the topic of falls and failures is always more complex. At the same time, it allows you to form an objective opinion about the candidate.

The important point is that this question is not usually asked to understand what mistakes the candidate has made. Most often, the interviewer tries to understand the candidate’s reaction to his own failures and his ability to draw conclusions from failures and learning ability.

Things to consider when answering:

1. Be sure to tell a real story, not a fictional one. The falseness is always felt.

2. Talk not only about the failure, but also about how you got out of it and what conclusions you drew.

3. Never shift the blame for a mistake to others.

A good answer follows the formula: describe the problem → tell how you analyzed it and what conclusion you came to → tell how you solved the problem → show how this affected the final result.

A bad answer is a statement of the fact of an error without analyzing the situation. Or a phrase like: “Everything was successful, and I never made mistakes.” Whether we like it or not, everyone makes mistakes. With such an answer, the recruiter will simply lose confidence in you.

Alexey IsaevHead of the recruitment team at the GMS agency

In fact, there cannot be a single correct option in such a situation, but it is important to understand this. Everyone has their own failures and setbacks at work. If the candidate cannot remember anything and says that this did not happen, this is the wrong answer.

Why do recruiters ask this question? It is important for an employer to understand how much a person understands and knows how to admit his mistakes, what he learns from a difficult situation and to what extent he is able to analyze his actions. So this is a pretty standard competency interview question.

It can be one of a series of awkward questions that allows the interviewer to assess the candidate’s resistance to stress without going too far and maintaining the overall positive format of the conversation. A recruiter's request to give such an example often leaves the applicant perplexed, and this is the right moment to obtain information about how the candidate may behave in non-standard and psychologically uncomfortable situations.

An example of a “good answer” could be a standard “bad project” situation, for example, when the set result was not achieved. It is important that the candidate describes the situation correctly:

1. What goal was set (detailed description of the situation, project).

2. The role of the candidate in the project.

3. Result (what happened).

4. What went wrong.

5. Why the candidate considers the project a failure.

6. Did he try to somehow influence the problems that arose.

7. How he tried to solve the problems that arose in the project.

8. What did he learn from this situation?

9. What would he do now in similar circumstances.

An experienced recruiter will ask leading questions and thus guide the candidate to the answers. So there is no need to be afraid of this issue. But it’s better to think about an example in advance so that you are not caught off guard. Try not to make your answers sound like you've memorized them.

In fact, there is only one piece of advice to candidates - before you answer and improvise, tell the truth. Admit that the question was unexpected and you need to think a little. Then calm down, collect yourself and talk as structuredly as possible about a work situation or project when the result of your work was unsatisfactory and what this situation taught you.

Anna PanovaHead of the recruitment group for sales and marketing at Kaspersky Lab

We ask this question quite often in interviews. As a rule, the employer uses such questions to check how much the candidate is able to analyze his actions, decisions made and draw logical conclusions from them.

There is no single correct answer here: we note whether a person knows how to think several steps ahead, whether he takes responsibility, and whether he can apply his past experience, even if unsuccessful, in new situations.

We also look at honesty and openness - what kind of reaction is shown to such a question, if, for example, it is negative, perhaps the candidate is not entirely frank; on the candidate’s self-esteem - what he considers a failure and what not, how objective he is in his perception of reality. What is important is the reaction to failures - whether a person is able to mobilize his strength and find a way out of the current situation. If the candidate honestly talks about the failure and what conclusions he drew from it, then this is a good indicator.

Yulia SaninaHead of HR department of separate divisions of Rambler&Co

• Career and Self-development

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List of questions for writing sales reviews that need to be asked to the client

You see, for the most part, clients share their emotions, and the review should include slightly different points. All you do is prepare a list of questions that the client must answer in his review. And he feels good - he understands what needs to be said or written, and you get a golden asset in your hands. An additional benefit is that reviews compiled using such a system will never be watery and empty.© Denis Kaplunov

A list of questions

1. Why did you decide to cooperate with us?
2. What issue did you contact us to solve?
3. What is your opinion about the product (service) - what did you like most?
4. What is the main value of our product (service)?
5. What made us stand out from similar proposals?
6. Did you expect exactly this effect from our product (service)?
7. Who would you recommend our product (service) to?
8. Can we use your review in our marketing materials?

“Why did you decide to cooperate with us?”

The purpose of this question is to “reveal” the specific criteria on the basis of which the client made the decision to cooperate. What was the key for him? What convinced him most?

The answer to this question is very important only because other people will read the review - and as soon as they notice similarities in the criteria, the review turns into a selling text (or video).

“What issue did you turn to us to solve?”

This question is needed only because the client talks about the problems he has encountered in his life, work or business.

Issues in feedback are only important because issues bring people together. As soon as we see that someone has already been able to solve similar problems, easily and quickly, and still remain satisfied, we begin to trust such a solution.

What is this solution? That's right, your product and service.

“Your opinion about the product (service) – what did you like most?”

This question is asked because the client must voice SPECIFIC characteristics and properties, and not limit himself to empty assurances in the style of “it was great!”

When a client voices specific characteristics or properties of your product, he, with his own lips, indicates the benefits of your offer. And benefits are exactly what new clients are looking for.

Your clients themselves attract new clients to you, without even realizing it...

“What is the main value of our product (service)?”

Very important question. As a rule, in the answer to this question, the client voices the result that he was able to achieve with the help of your product (service).

What is the result in business? This is all.

A new client looks at the review, starts doing the math in his head and sees that it’s really beneficial. Which sensible person likes to miss out on good deals?

“What made us stand out from similar proposals?”

Each person chooses, and does not blindly run to the first sign.

If the client paid his money to you, it means that he was able to notice your difference from competitive offers.

You yourself can guess and think for a very long time - what exactly distinguishes you from other players in your market - and the client’s opinion in this matter is perhaps the most valuable.

And new clients read about this difference. Cool, yeah?

“Did you expect exactly this effect from our product (service)?”

How often have you heard or read the phrase “Meet and exceed your customers' desires”?

It is also advisable to use this idea in a review - if you manage to not only meet, but also exceed customer expectations, this will count towards you.

For example, you tell the client that you will do THIS in 3 days, and provide him with the finished work in 1.5 days. Did you exceed expectations? Certainly! And the client will be happy about this.

And new clients will also fall for such information, because this quality is very important not only for simple sales, but also for repeat sales.

The purpose of this question is to encourage the client to outline a circle of potential clients who will benefit from your product (service).

You don't say it, your clients say it. And these, as they say, are two big differences. Yes, yes...

But here it is important to get the answer not in the style of listing professions and types of activity, but with a hint of the result, that is: “For those people who strive to ________”

A new client reads such a review and sees himself in it. Hurray, I found it!

“Can we use your review in our marketing materials?”

Whether you like it or not, the client should immediately understand that you will use their feedback in any marketing material you wish.

If a buyer posts his review on your website, you can then place it in your presentation, marketing kit, and other materials.

Do you like the information? Tell us about it on your social network!

A person is accustomed to assuming that he is independent of other people's opinions. That his choice is completely independent, and he doesn’t care about other people’s assessments. However, this is not the case. “If I want, I’ll do it, if I want, I won’t” - this is another illusion that the average person in the street consoles himself with.

Robert B. Cialdini, in his book The Psychology of Influence, describes in some detail the impact of the principle of “social proof” on people. He gives examples of amazing stories of human actions dictated by thoughtless imitation of other people.

You and I will not delve into psychology. Let’s simply take the statement as an axiom: REVIEWS WORK. And it will always be like this.

Frequently repeated headlines get boring, twin sales texts irritate more than they sell... And only His Majesty REVIEW still remains an important and necessary element of your sales strategy.

Let's look at a few rules that will help you in working with reviews.

How many reviews should there be?

The answer is simple – there can never be too many reviews.

Ideally, every customer who has used your product or service should leave you feedback. But in practice, it often happens that in the bustle and worries you say goodbye to your satisfied customers, without receiving written confirmation from them of their joy from working with you.

Why so many reviews and what to do with them then?

A large number of reviews about you or your company gives you the opportunity to use them in various selling tools - in training announcements, subscription pages, on the website. You can print out the best reviews and hang them in a beautiful frame in your office, if you have one. And if you work at home, then print it out anyway and put it on your desktop - you will be inspired before the next conquest of the heights of business.

I am often asked the question: “How many reviews should be included in a sales text?”

It all depends on the size of the text. From two or three in a short text, to ten in different parts of a long text. Don't bore your readers. For a “sales person”, choose only the brightest ones from your large number of reviews.

Where are the rest?

Your website probably has a “Reviews” section, where you can feel free to show how much your customers love you.

But before you take a review, you must know how to do it correctly. Because a review written for you by a customer “just like that” may be pleasant, but not significant enough for your new clients to make a decision.

What is “correct feedback”?

This is a review that closes the objections of your potential buyers.

“Isn’t it too expensive?.. Will it work?.. Will I get the promised result?..”

You can easily dispel these and other customer doubts with the help of the right reviews.

When and how is the best time to take reviews?

Really good reviews from customers come immediately after your joint work is completed and a successful result from cooperation is obtained. Emotions have not yet subsided, and the client is able to write you kind and warm words of gratitude from the bottom of his heart.

Don't forget, however, that you need the right feedback. And to the customer’s question “What should I write?..” ask them to leave their opinion in the review on this or that problem-objection that you consider necessary to close.

Why aren't all reviews equally attractive?

Once the review is received, do not rush to include it entirely in the sales text or on the website. Even if it is correct and closes many objections.

A review is like a precious stone and requires a jeweler's cut.

How to properly process a “sheet of text” received from a grateful client?

I offer you several rules for working with reviews:

1. Highlight the main idea in your review. This is usually one or two sentences. Make this the title of your review.
2. Shorten the text by removing unnecessary fluff without losing the meaning of the content.
3. Highlight the most significant thoughts in bold.
4. Break the “brick” of text into several paragraphs for ease of reading.

Should I change my review style? In no case. Perhaps the sentences will seem inconsistent to you, the thought will seem torn and illogical. Doesn't matter. Leave the client's spelling, punctuation and writing style alone. You can correct only obvious typos, and let the rest be as is.

What if I don’t have any clients yet? Can you come up with a review?

If you have just started work and you don’t have satisfied customers yet, then this is not a reason to deceive people.

You can let a person try your product or test your service for free. And as a reward for your work, ask for feedback. There is nothing shameful in this; many successful entrepreneurs started this way.

And finally, a list of questions for a great review

To ensure that the review is truly selling, and not just a delight in the style of “Yes, eprst, that was cool!”, I suggest you give the client a list of questions. And it’s easier for him to write and you’ll definitely like the review.

Questions:

1. Share the doubts that tormented you before purchasing our product
2. Share your feelings about using our product (training)
3. How was your problem solved using our product?
4. What did you like most about the product?
5. Do you have any suggestions to improve the quality of our product (you don’t have to post the answer to this question if it’s so-so))

For your review, be sure to ask for your first and last name, a link to a website or social network, and a photo of a happy client.

P.S. There is another great type of review - video review. I'll tell you about it in the next article.

Wishing you good sales, your Alisa-Natasha.

How to talk about your failures in an interview

As a rule, questions about career mistakes cause a lot of trouble for job seekers. How to turn defeats into victories?

Don't hide your failures

One of the most common tricky interview questions is asking you to tell about your biggest failure. It is not surprising that most applicants are thrown into a stupor by such a proposal and force them to get off with general phrases in the style of “I prefer not to look back at failures.” The main reason for such stereotyped and hypocritical answers is the cult of a successful person, according to which admitting that you are flawed means forever labeling yourself as a loser. However, this superficial psychology is not always applicable to life.

An experienced personnel officer will always notice your insincerity, and attempts to get out of it are unlikely to make a pleasant impression on him.

A story about a funny incident that happened to you at home, at college, or on vacation is also not the best answer to the question. Firstly, you risk giving the impression of a frivolous person, and secondly, you may again be suspected of insincerity.

“Once I had to undergo an interview at a very serious financial company,” says sales manager Oleg. - The post for which I applied was not very high, but three representatives of the company were present at the interview with me. When HR asked me to tell me about my most significant failure, I, remembering the advice of a psychologist I knew, smiled charmingly and talked about how, when I went on vacation, I took my work phone with me, which my colleagues cut off for the entire two weeks. The members of the “commission” listened to me with stony faces, expressed their gratitude with restraint, and soon declared that I was not serious enough.”

As practice shows, an applicant who is able to honestly tell, and most importantly - skillfully analyze his mistakes, is always listened to with great interest. He inspires more trust and gives the impression of a mature and adequate person and professional. Once a major mistake is made, it is a guarantee that in the future, an employee, taught by bitter experience, will avoid similar situations or skillfully solve similar problems.

By the way, about the employer’s adequate attitude towards negative experience. It is worth remembering an incident that once happened at the Henry Ford plant. An employee made a mistake that cost the company a million dollars. The man came to Ford with a letter of resignation, to which he replied: “Are you crazy! We just invested a million in your education.”

Select the appropriate error

But remember: not every failure is worth talking about. For example, if there was a personal conflict at your previous job, there is no need to highlight it under any circumstances, especially in conjunction with accusations against the person with whom the quarrel occurred.

During an interview, you should be honest, within reasonable limits, of course. If a person hid something, then over time it will become clear to the employer that the employee is not in his company. But there are nuances here that will be significant for the team, and there are things that can be called a person’s personal matter. For example, if you notice a tendency towards conflict, it is better to mention it. There are places where it doesn’t matter, where they know how to smooth out conflicts, where you need to communicate less with people, etc. But if you had personal problems with an individual employee, you should understand that this person will not be in the new place, and besides, here there may be other corporate values. So there's no point in talking about it.

A good answer might be to tell a story about how you took a big risk for the company. Even if your risk does not pay off, you will show yourself as an employee who is not indifferent to the fate of the common cause and who is capable of taking active actions.

Don't overdo it with self-flagellation

Despite the fact that negative experience does not always work against you, you should not deliberately focus the attention of a potential employer on it. This is especially important if you are being interviewed by a non-professional. If the interlocutor does not understand the specifics of your work, he will remember only the fact of the mistake made, and not the useful conclusions that you were able to draw.

If during an interview you are not asked to evaluate your work in previous places, it is better not to get ahead of yourself and not initiate a conversation about failures. The worst thing is to present your past experience as a failure and insist on it. The employer will be very alarmed by the lack of conclusions that you could draw after what happened. You must say what exactly you understood thanks to what happened and what steps you took to normalize the situation.

This may be an awareness of what knowledge you lack, and subsequent attempts to catch up. Or an understanding of how to distribute funds and personnel, which came to you as a result of some miscalculations related to personnel, for example, a lack of resources.

“If I’m asked to tell about career mistakes, I always remember the same story,” says event manager Daria. - Immediately after graduating from university, I really wanted to get a job in a normal agency and was afraid that they wouldn’t hire me due to lack of experience. Therefore, I slightly “tweaked” my resume, where I wrote that I had 1.5 years of experience. At the very first interview I was brought to light. But I managed to pass the second interview, and they took me on probation. Naturally, during this time I showed myself to be completely incompetent and was kicked out of the company in disgrace. That same evening I corrected my resume, and a couple of weeks later I got a job at an agency for a low-level position with a salary of three kopecks. There I grew from assistant manager to project director. My story always helps me get settled.”

Any negative experience is worth a lot, and your employer will be glad that you trained on someone else. The main thing is not to blame external circumstances for everything, saying: “We didn’t succeed, but I have absolutely nothing to do with it.”

Don't try to laugh it off

If during an interview you were asked to talk about a major failure, you should not turn everything into a joke, remembering a funny incident. Such an answer is unlikely to satisfy your interlocutor, and you will look like a frivolous and insincere person.

Which competency question is the most difficult? For many it is this one: Tell me about a time when something didn't work out for you.. Increasingly, recruiters are including this question in behavioral interviews. HR experts even say that this is the most important question to ask a candidate. Obviously, you can't afford to fail it.

However, my experience is that most candidates do not know how to answer this question correctly. Why is this so difficult? All competency questions are quite tricky, and this question is one of them. It is asked to find out about your negative experiences. It's not a good idea to talk about your negative experiences in an interview because you're focused on presenting yourself in the best possible light to your potential employers. And that's okay.

You should be frank, but not too frank. How can you talk about your failure without hurting your chances of getting the job?

The following tips will help you prepare to answer this important question.

What are competency issues?

Companies ask competency questions to learn about your past performance. Research tracking the hiring and firing processes of companies around the world shows that it is the most effective way to predict future performance and select the right candidates. This is not perfect, but it is the best method we have.

Competency questions typically begin with “Tell me about a time...” or “Give me an example...” Each question focuses on a required competency in the industry (e.g., creativity, ).

Why do interviewers ask about failure?

It's great to celebrate success, but it's more important to listen to the lessons failures teach us. Bill Gates

It can be assumed that HR managers ask this question to torment candidates - to find any evidence that you have made mistakes, and thus have serious reasons to refuse you. When you look at the situation this way, it's no wonder that many candidates get overwhelmed and have trouble making a good example of their failure.

You might find it reassuring to know that hiring managers don't expect you to be perfect. They know that everyone fails. They ask this question to understand:

• Are you the kind of person who knows how to learn from failure?
• Are you able to admit your shortcomings and weaknesses?
• Are you willing to take reasonable risks?
• How do you view success, failure and risk in general?

After all, if you've never failed, then you've probably never achieved significant success. Potential employers want to know: Can you learn from your mistakes?

The most common question phrases are: “Tell me about a time when you failed” or “Tell me about your biggest mistake.” There are also other variations on this theme:

• What is your biggest professional failure?
• Tell me about a mistake you made.
• What is your biggest mistake and what did you learn?
• Tell me about a decision you made that you now regret.

How NOT to answer a competency question about failure.

The most common mistake is that candidates answer this question They do NOT answer. I understand why a candidate gets confused when asked about his mistakes. If you haven't prepared in advance to cover this topic, then it will be difficult to quickly come up with a good example that shows you at your best, even when answering a question like this.

Many candidates say “um,” “mm,” or “ah” for a while until they finally say, “I can’t think of a single major failure. I guess I was lucky that I succeeded in all the positions I held.” This answer may seem neutral and safe. However, from the interviewer's point of view, you didn't answer the question at all - you failed it!

Such no-answer can be interpreted in four ways:

• You consider yourself perfect and, therefore, you either do not strive for self-improvement or do not have critical thinking skills.
• You are hiding a story about a terrible failure that you don't want to make public.
• You don't set the bar high for yourself, so you never fail.
• You always behave carefully and never take risks or take any drastic actions.

Neither of these interpretations gives you any value in the eyes of the interviewer, thereby reducing your chances of getting the offer.

Another common mistake is for candidates to say something without thinking. Some of them are too excited and are capable of blurting out stupid things in this state. They tell a story that makes them look really bad.

How SHOULD you answer a competency question about failure?

I strongly encourage every candidate to prepare a failure story. As I mentioned earlier, this has become a very common interview question. But perhaps you'll be so lucky that interviewers will ask questions about your or, or - questions that will help you show off your strengths and hide your weaknesses. But isn't it better to be prepared to hear: “Tell me about your big failure.”

As always when it comes to preparing for behavioral questions, I encourage you to use the STAR technique as a basis for constructing your failure story. Using the STAR technique, you structure your answer and write down only the main aspects of your story (Situation/Task, Actions, and Results). This technique helps you avoid losing focus and getting sidetracked. Without dedicated preparation, this will be difficult to achieve.

How to choose a good failure story.

Before you start with the STAR technique, you should choose a good story to tell in the interview. It is important to choose a failure story that will serve you well.

Everyone fails, big or small. The trick is to give an example that highlights your strengths. Here are some tips for choosing a good story:

1. Talk about a real failure. You must answer this question. Don't say, for example, “We increased sales by 35%, but I wish I could do more, so I felt like a complete failure. I guess I'm just a perfectionist."
2. Don't be too frank. At the same time, you should not reveal your deepest and darkest secrets. Don't talk about failure that was the result of a serious personal mistake. A team failure can be a great story because you share the responsibility with others. Remember to acknowledge your role in this and don't try to place all the blame on your colleagues.
3. Focus on lessons. Choose a story that ends with you learning something from it. Ideally, you should talk about the successful application of the acquired knowledge and skills in subsequent projects.

An example answer to the question is “Tell me about your biggest professional failure.”

The proposed example is compiled using the STAR technique. You will notice that it is very detailed. I did this on purpose to show you what a STAR answer might sound like in an interview. When you start preparing your own stories using the STAR technique, you don't need to write full sentences with smooth transitions. You'll just use the bullet points to structure your answer because your story will be a little different each time.

S/T (Situation - situation/Task - task)

• This is the background. Provide a brief overview of the situation to provide context.

An example of using a bulleted list to describe a situation/task:

• I would say that my biggest professional failure occurred as a project manager at ABC, the company I currently work for.
• Last year, our team was unable to obtain a new project worth 100 million rubles from one of our clients.
• The project was supposed to be ours, but we made a mistake and missed it.

Pros of this answer: This candidate takes responsibility for the failure and does not try to sugarcoat it or make excuses.

Advice: Give the interviewer basic information about the situation. The emphasis should be on the positive side - the lessons you learned - this is what you will talk about later in the Results section.

A— (Actions - actions)

• Once you've briefly described the situation, it's time to go into detail about what exactly happened and why.

An example of using a bulleted list to describe actions:

• I think the biggest problem was that the entire team considered this project already ours and took it for granted. We had a very good relationship with the client and had just successfully completed a project for them.
• Our entire team, led by the manager, went to a meeting with the client to give him a presentation. The meeting went well and we received positive feedback.
• But looking back, we didn't put in the extra effort to wow the customer. We didn't try to go above and beyond like we should have. This allowed our competitor to make an impressive presentation and win the project.
• At the same time, we were unable to truly understand all of the client's key problems. They told us that price was No. 1 on the list of topics to discuss, so we focused on demonstrating cost-effectiveness.

Pros of this answer:

• What happened is truly a real failure. The candidate provided enough detail to understand the whole picture without overwhelming the interviewer with unnecessary details or going off-topic.
• The candidate clearly thought about the reasons for the failure and analyzed his role.
• He took responsibility and determined that he and his team could do a better job.
• He showed his professionalism and dedication to the company.

R (results - results)

• A STAR story always has a happy ending. In a story about failure, the R section (results) will be slightly different from other stories about leadership, problem solving. Typically, this section describes the positive results from your actions (increased sales, reduced costs). A story about failure has an unexpected ending. By definition, failure cannot be a positive outcome. Positive results come later and the emphasis is on learning lessons and gaining new useful experiences.

A mistake is a future success, the real value of which has yet to be understood. Edwin Land - inventor of the Polaroid camera

An example of using a bulleted list to describe results:

• The loss of the project was a real blow to the company - financially and in terms of employee morale.
• I volunteered to conduct an analysis of what happened in order to learn from it.
• Lesson #1 that our team learned is to never take a client for granted and never deliver presentations at the “more or less” level. We must exceed customer expectations. And I can say that we have been doing this ever since and it has given us a record number of orders.
• Personally, I realized that I need to pay more attention to the client’s needs and try to read between the lines.
• Although I am a Project Manager and sales are not my main focus, I am still able to maintain daily contact with the client and help the company attract new projects.
• I decided to take a sales course to develop relevant skills. And I found that I was now more involved in the business development process and was much more successful at it.

Pros of this answer: The candidate analyzed what went wrong and what lessons could be learned from it. He looked at the situation from different points of view - company, team, personal. He showed that lessons had been learned through subsequent successful presentations. He focuses more on results rather than failure.

Don't forget to practice.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I place a high priority on working out. Interview practice may not seem like a big deal to you during your job search, but it is incredibly effective. I see the importance of training for job seekers, especially when it comes to answering competency-based questions.