"One of my biggest perceived failures was at the beginning of my post-secondary career when I did not graduate when I was expected to. A few personal matters pushed my graduation date back one year. It was embarrassing at the time, but truth be told, I am thankful I could complete my degree at a comfortable pace. I finished on the Dean's List and am proud of that accomplishment."

"For the first three years of my career, I was terrible at graciously receiving feedback. Had I been able to receive feedback without becoming defensive, I believe I could have grown in my career much faster. Last year, I took a workshop on giving and receiving feedback, which helped a great deal. Now, I understand how to have those conversations and implement the constructive criticism I receive."

Goldman Sachs expresses interest in how their employees approach calculated risks, what they learn from their failures, and how they apply those lessons moving forward. They take their perceived risks so seriously that they even have a department solely dedicated to risk. "Our Risk division develops comprehensive processes to monitor, assess and manage the risk of expected and unexpected events that may hurt the firm. Risk teams play a critical function for the firm, driving how the firm takes and manages risk. Risk professionals execute critical day-to-day risk management activities, lead projects, and contribute to the ongoing advancement of a robust risk management program. Effective coordination with executive management, business units, control departments, and technology is critical for success. We are at the forefront of the most recent engineering solutions, including cloud computing and big data, to better manage to compute costs for the firm given increasing demands related to asset pricing and scenario generation."