Talk about a time you received negative feedback.
The interviewer wants to know if you can graciously accept feedback and learn from the criticism. Discuss a specific time you received negative feedback, describe your reaction, outline the action you took to improve, and highlight what you learned from the situation.
"While working at Company XYZ, I was the client lead on a project that failed to meet expectations. My team felt overstretched, and we failed to devote sufficient time to the project. The client was not satisfied with the delayed outcome, and we received negative feedback during our retrospective meeting. As the client lead, I took ownership of the failure and set up a meeting with my supervisor to discuss the mistakes. We worked together to make a concrete plan to improve my project management approach. This experience taught me a great deal about what not to do, and now I consider project management one of my greatest strengths."
"A few months ago, I created a project proposal that did not address my clients' root problems. I didn't ask my client enough clarifying questions from the start. As a result, various miscommunications led to a proposal that missed the mark. I had to redo the proposal, per my supervisor's feedback. I quickly addressed my mistake and came up with a proposal that satisfied the client's goals. From this failure, I learned the importance of open and direct communication from the start of a project. Today, I feel confident in my ability to handle negative feedback as it helps me to improve professionally."
How you respond to criticism speaks volumes about your ability to handle failure and use it as an opportunity to improve professionally. Give a specific example that shows your capacity to learn from your mistakes and improve in the face of criticism. Make sure your example is not a huge error or judgment lapse that negatively reflects on you as a professional. Focus your response on your tolerance for adversity and emphasize the strategies you've developed to push through challenging situations in the workplace.
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
During my time at ________, I once made a mistake and got a critical error mark from the QA team. I quickly re-educated myself on where I misunderstood, learned from the mistake, drew the bullet points of how not to make the same mistake, and presented it to my manager.
Jaymie's Feedback
These questions can be hard, but it's important to remember the interviewer is not so much focused on your mistake, but rather on how you handled the feedback. Your response shows you are receptive to feedback, can reflect and take ownership, then learn from the mistake and take steps to ensure it's not repeated in the future. Great job!
