Tell me about a time that you failed. How did you get back up again?

Question

Rachelle Enns · Accepted Answer

"(Situation) One of the bigger perceived failures that I can think of was not graduating as soon as expected with my university degree. (Task) I had detailed plans laid out and was eager to graduate with my degree in 2018. (Action) I encountered a few personal factors that pushed my graduation date back one year. It was a bit embarrassing at the time, but I made the best of it by keeping a positive mindset. (Result) In the end, I am thankful that I could complete my degree at a comfortable pace. I finished with excellent grades as well."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

The interviewer is looking for evidence that you can bounce back from a disappointing outcome. The goal of your response is not to focus on the failure. Instead, showcase your ability to recover from failure. Your answer should highlight your tenacity, dedication, and drive, even when things don't go as planned.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

We all fail from time to time, and there is no need to be ashamed of defeat. The magic is in the lessons we learn from these situations. Give an example of an outcome of a project or task that was not what you wanted it to be, but you were able to recover. Perhaps you were better off in the end or learned a valuable lesson. Outline the roadblock, and share how you approached the situation to ensure a good recovery. At the end of your response, discuss your level of dedication, even in the face of failure, and how you will make an impact in this new role.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

Behavioral-based interview questions that begin with 'Tell me about a time...' are best answered using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

We have all recovered from a failure to some degree. Avoid responses like, 'I can't think of a specific time when I failed at something, but if this did happen to me, I would work hard to bounce back from the situation.' Being unable to answer a behavioral-based interview question directly will result in appearing unprepared for your interview.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) My former employer put me through a last-minute advanced Excel course that I ended up failing. (Task) I was unprepared for how challenging the course was and should not have agreed to begin with an advanced-level course. (Action) I told my boss that I was not excelling in the class. We discussed this failure together and realized that I was not yet ready for the advanced-level coursework. I was more of an intermediate-level user. To fix the situation, I studied online for a few weeks and then re-took the course when I felt more prepared. (Result) This approach worked much better, and I finished with 92% the second time around."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) Last year I had a larger staff turnover percentage than usual. Hiring the wrong person is an expensive and time-consuming mistake, so I was undoubtedly frustrated and discouraged. (Task) As a seasoned Manager, my hiring process is normally airtight, but it is not perfect. (Action) Rather than lose confidence in my abilities, I engaged the Human Resources department in simplifying our onboarding and training process. (Result) Since this change, we have not lost any employees in the last 18 months, which is a fabulous record for our company."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) A few months ago, our group had a marketing campaign that completely flopped. (Task) It was up to me as the Marketing Director to get to the heart of the issue. (Action) I called a group meeting. Then, as a team, we broke down each component of the project until we knew where we went wrong. In retrospect, I could have done better by breaking down the clients' vision further from the beginning. (Result) We re-did the campaign, and the second time around, it was a major success."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) Earlier in my career, I was not good at graciously receiving feedback. (Task) Had I been able to receive feedback without becoming defensive, I believe that I could have grown in my career much faster. (Action) Last year, I took a workshop on giving and receiving feedback, which helped a great deal. (Result) Now, I understand how to have these types of conversations and how to implement the constructive criticism that I receive."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) I had a misstep in my sales career a couple of years ago. You can see the short stint at Company ABC on my resume. (Task) Before joining their organization, I should have asked more questions regarding their success level and how their current results reflect their future goals. (Action) The company was in serious financial trouble, and I was unaware. They went into receivership, and I lost my job. (Result) Now, I ask many more questions before joining a new company. My success and the company's success should go hand in hand."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) Last year, I missed a major marking deadline. (Task) I was newer to my teaching career and, although it is a steep learning curve, that was no excuse. (Action) I have spent the past eight months working on my time-management skills through online workshops. (Result) I took that missed deadline very hard. I do not like to disappoint anyone or fall short of expectations and will never do that again."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Situation: My manger asked me to take a course on advanced physiology, and I ended up failing. Task: I was not aware that this course was difficult, or else I would not have begun so quickly. Action: I talked to my manger and discussed the fact that I may not be at an advanced level. I asked him if it was okay if I started with an intermediate level course. Result: I successfully passed this exam with a high grade."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Last year I gave our external counsel to act for us in a matter and to enter appearance. A month later, I was served with an auctioneer note to satisfy a decretal sum; in that matter, I learned that we lost the case. The external counsel had not entered an appearance, and I had failed to monitor that. The person was able to get a stay of execution and entered appearance; however, I learned that your finger should be on the pulse for litigation straight from the instruction letter. I am happy to report that I have slashed litigation by 70% and effectively managed all our cases through proper diarization and follow up on regular reports issued to me."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I had a misstep in my career a few years back. I joined an organization that was in financial trouble because I didn't ask the right question, and I was blinded by my ambition to get experience in that particular field. After a year of struggling, the company laid off the majority of its sales team, and I was one of them. While my first reaction was deep relief, it brought me to square one. I've learned a great deal about what to look for and the types of questions to ask when choosing employment."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I failed my very first CIMA exam due to a lack of respect for the exam. I underappreciated how much preparation was required. This was difficult as I had rarely failed exams before and to start off the CIMA journey with a fail was tough. Having to explain it to my manager and graduate HR, thinking they would believe I may not be cut out for the exams. This turned out to be a great wake-up call, I studied harder for every exam after that."

Anonymous User · Answer

"(Situation) Earlier in my career, I was not good at graciously receiving feedback. (Task) Had I been able to receive feedback without becoming defensive, I believe that I could have grown in my career much faster. (Action) Last year, I took a workshop on giving and receiving feedback, which helped a great deal. (Result) Now, I understand how to have these types of conversations and how to implement the constructive criticism that I receive."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I have failed when I wanted to create my own mobile application. I created a business model, designs, and value proposition, however, since I am not a developer, I had to onboard people that I did not know well. Developers did not adapt to the idea after some time and they did not prioritize at all, in the end, they left the team. If I ever try something similar, I will work with the people that I know well and have the same vision/passion as me."

Anonymous User · Answer

"We were working on a campaign, and after 4 rounds of concept, the client was still dissatisfied. I called a meeting with other members and the creative department to have a collective brainstorming session. We analyzed the initial brief again and re-assessed our work. We found out that we could have come up with a better angle that is more in line with the client's objective. We worked on the campaign again and presented it to the client. The concept was approved and we proceeded with launching the campaign."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When I started as a server I remember Valentine's day being a very challenging day for me. I had just finished training and it was one of my first nights working on my own. It was a very fast-paced busy night and I was making mistake after mistake. I put in one table's order wrong, I forgot to send another table's order, and I was running around panicking about all the problems I'd created. I had to just stop at some point and take a deep breath, give myself a pep talk and tell myself to slow down. Going too fast was causing mistakes. After I slowed down my night improved, and I got everything straightened out."

Anonymous User · Answer

"¢	S: In my last role as a tutor, I worked with an A-level economics student. Early in this process, I saw that he was struggling with essays even though I had provided him with a solid structure."¢	T: I needed to find a way to improve his essay standards."¢	A: I took an essay into our next lesson and asked him to plan it in front of me. I noticed he was indecisive about applying what he learned which weakened his arguments. I created a separate lesson plan aimed at how to apply real-world data."¢	R: This successfully took his essays to the next level and also taught me the importance of paying attention to details in a process."

Anonymous User · Answer

"My transition as a developer from a legacy environment to a startup was not smooth, when I got feedback that my coding skills were not mature enough for the pace needed at a startup, I retooled, found a role within the org where I could excel as a performance and scalability engineer, and a very successful role change that lasted 8 years beyond. TMO role example from Overall Program architect-->PCRF Migration architect."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When I was in high school I didn't study at all outside of school. When I started college, this strategy no longer worked and I failed a class that set me back an entire year. I was working a lot at the time and failing really made me reconsider my priorities. I cut back my hours and made a point to put my school work before earning money. I passed every other class I enrolled in after that."

Anonymous User · Answer

"After a year of planning, we launched a Contemporary Crafts major as an off-shoot to our fine arts major, believing the outcomes and learning objectives were significantly different. This past year, due to low enrollment, the college chose not to pursue final approval. Now when I make curricular changes, I'm careful to do research and engage with more departments and people before making decisions."

Anonymous User · Answer

"During my undergraduate nursing program, I failed Pathophysiology. This was embarrassing because we were 3 friends that studied together in that program and I'm the only one who failed. However, I didn't give up, I took the course in the summer semester passed with a B, I was able to move on and I graduated as plan."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When working for _________ in Vietnam, we had this project with a high school in Vietnam to launch our Foundation at their campus. This was one of the transnational strategies. I was not aware of how complex the license issues with the Vietnam government with the foreign education program. The project did not happen. However, I managed to keep a close relationship with the school for our recruitment activities. We run several English competitions, presentations, and parent seminars. I was also able to organize summer study tours every year for those high school students to come to ___ College for a few weeks in a tailored program. We have approx 10 students from school to ___ college. And this is a fantastic outcome."

Anonymous User · Answer

"(Situation) In academia, it is very important to show mobility and to gain international research experience. (Task) In 2016, I applied to the German Science Foundation to obtain a post-doc scholarship for a 2-years research visit in the US. (Action) I spent many weeks writing the proposal, submitted it, and 6 months later I got rejected. This was a huge failure for me end led me to a crisis, because I felt not to be good enough for academia. At some point, I wanted to understand why they rejected my proposal and I asked for the review reports and feedback. They agreed to send it to me, which was very helpful and eye-opening for me. Studying these reports, I figured out that I missed providing important details of my ideas and I did not present and illustrate my ideas well. Thus, I decided to attend a workshop offered by the university career center on how to write research proposals. Then, I re-wrote the whole proposal, shaped the formulation of my research questions, and used a lecturing service offered by the university to get feedback on the new proposal. (Result) Using this proposal, I got accepted and went for a 2-years research visit to UC Berkeley. I learned many things in this process: First, I improved my writing and learned how to shape the research questions. Second, I learned that one should use available resources, especially, when being not an expert yet. Third, I should never give up, but improve and try again later.""

Anonymous User · Answer

"I was working as a freelance translator and we had a three-month-long project. I was delivering translations twice a week, and every delivery was on a tight deadline, meaning one delay would have a domino effect and potentially derail the whole project. In the middle of the road, the inevitable happened and I sent in a translation late. Even though the project was difficult and everybody understood it, failing to deliver it on time would cause a breach of trust between me and the client, which meant I needed to do something. Since the work I needed to do was the same but now I had less time to do it, I needed to streamline my workflow. I went back and took a hard look at how I translated. I realized that the checks and controls I had in place to ensure quality were too extensive for their own sake. I could touch up the draft more lightly and still get fully functioning and register appropriate target texts. This discovery not only allowed me to optimize my work processes, but I was also able to finish the project three days ahead of time."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I've had academic failures, relationship-wise, and professionally. As I look back on how I handled failures it of course were often devastating when they occurred but I realized that I had the resilience to think about the things that I could change and change them and to forgive myself for things I can't change. I give myself a moment and then I buckle down and analyze the situation and figure out what I can do to fix it. I hope this makes me more empathetic to those around me when they struggle and think about what I can do to help in that situation."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Once we launched a big campaign that failed to attract users, I conducted several workshops with the team to identify what went wrong, and incorporate the lesson learned. In our next campaign, we avoid the past mistake and we succeeded this time."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I Had to Design a cost allocation methodology to be implemented in the reporting tool. Excellent designing of the methodology finished with proper approvals. However, missed reviewing it with IT and a result once presented to them for implementation and realized it will cause multiple views of the data and as a result, cannot be done due to data volume crash and missed the project timeline. Though IT analysis was not one of my tasks as the lead I had to ensure the successful implementation of the project. A quick fix which is applying a threshold to data could be done to meet the timeline but I owned the mistake, informed management and re-did the timeline, and worked with IT to come out with a solution without impacting data quality."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I had a misstep in my career with my last employer. I joined an organization that was in financial trouble due to Covid and not being able to employ workers for important tasks, I was blinded by my ambition to get experience in that particular field. After a year of struggling, a majority of employees were leaving due to not having proper manpower causing everything to become havoc. It brought me to square one. I've learned a great deal about what to look for and the types of questions to ask when choosing employment."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Before graduating from pharmacy school, I have always thought of obtaining a pharmacy residency was going to the end all be all. As a result, after finding out that I did not match the program that I wanted, I was defeated. But I kept my head up and kept all my connections open. I did not give up and managed to secure a position in the community pharmacy setting and built my experience as a pharmacist. Later on, through my network, I was able to secure a job that was more clinically oriented and more aligned with my career goals."

Anonymous User · Answer

"One time I implemented a data pipeline manually using a cron job and google pub/sub. In the end, my boss and I realized that there was a service on Google cloud called dataflow that automated this entire process so there was a waste of time and energy. So in the future, now I know to research the problem beforehand and weigh the different methods to a solution. Because oftentimes we are too eager to dive head first into a problem without planning."

Anonymous User · Answer

"As a new nurse, I started my assignment with a patient that had already been roomed. I had only been without a preceptor once since this shift. The patient was a diabetic with amputations, vitals were stable, the medics were not concerned, and the family said he was just "not himself". I started taking care of the patient when a more experienced nurse came in and said, "Get the doctor, this patient is septic!". It was the worst shift of my life. We got the patient stabilized but I learned a very very valuable lesson, learn the protocols, know them and take assess every situation thoroughly. Every detail matters."

Anonymous User · Answer

"In my first job at ______, my boss asked me to call all the companies/members regarding the upcoming Miami-Dade Bus Tour. In order for the bus tour to happen, _______ had to receive a certain amount of sponsorships and advertisements. My boss told me we need a commitment from everyone. When I called this particular company, I made the mistake of telling them that we were running behind and we had to receive a commitment from them. The company called my boss to tell them what I said and I felt so horrible. My boss was very disappointed in me. I asked my boss if I could write an apology letter and my boss agreed. Looking back on the situation, I should have had a strategy and written down what I would say. I should have never demanded anything. Instead, I should have shared all the options and let the company decide. I will never make a mistake like that again. Now I always have a plan and write everything out."

Anonymous User · Answer

"As part of a contract concession, my company purchased the inventory of a local distributor to make room for its replacement with our merchandise. In addition to my regular responsibilities, my supervisor asked me if I would find an outlet for the product and suggested that I look to local and national liquidators. I worked on it every spare moment that I had but was not able to find anyone that was willing to buy the odd lot of products I was offering. Ultimately, I had a conversation with my supervisor and informed him of my "failure." He asked me to keep trying and urged that I think out of the box. I ended up moving the product by donating to Habitat for Humanity and while it was not a sale, there were beneficial tax implications. In the end, my boss acknowledged that he could not have hoped for a better outcome."

Anonymous User · Answer

"During my undergrad, I failed an exam in intermediate accounting that I had studied for. I was very disappointed; however, I realized that the studying that I was doing was ineffective, so I began to use a different study method and passed my next exam in the class."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When my business failed, I liquidated it. I went back to college and earned a degree, studied design, and I'm now pursuing my new career and loving it."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I didn't get a high enough score on a test to make it onto the first group of people for a position; so I took it again and move up into the first group to be considered for employment."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When working at one of my previous companies, I got laid off due to the economy. I felt like a failure and that I did something wrong, so it took me a few weeks to get over it. I started looking for a new job and ended up finding a better job that I wouldn't have found had I not been laid off from the company where I got laid off from."

Anonymous User · Answer

"The time I remember failing was a time when I was being dictated by management to have a plc program completed within a time that was far too short. Though I let management know that I could not complete the project in that amount of time, they didn't believe me and moved forward towards the deadline, which I could not meet. I gave them a presentation of the program, the functionality, and what it lacked due to the short deadline and the amount of time I needed. After hearing the presentation, management gave me the time I need, and technically the project was completed successfully."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I can recall the experience last year while I was working with a potential employer in the media and communication industry. I brokered the relationship and was working on a project to recruit a full-time media communicator for the company. Unfortunately, none of the eight candidates we referred met the expectations of this employer. I apologized to the employer for trying to help not being able to fill the position at the time. However, I always kept their business needs in mind and got in touch with them four months later when I came across a new candidate who might be very promising for their business. I sent off the portfolio again, arranged a job interview, completed the reference check, and arranged the wage subsidy agreement. To this day he is still working there, and the employer is very pleased with our services."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When I became pregnant with my daughter, I had to sit out a semester of nursing school. I felt like a failure, how could I go back and finish with three kids, one a baby? I started to see my pregnancy as a blessing, and I knew if I really wanted to finish nursing school, I would. I had my baby in September 2018 and graduated in May 2019."

Anonymous User · Answer

"During my internship year, a patient was brought to me to scan, I did the examination, and my report came out normal. The same patient was brought a few hours later, and my head of department repeated the scan and picked a pathology. I felt terrible and sad, but it was an eye-opener for me. That situation reminded me that I still have a lot to learn and never to stop reading and refreshing my memory."

Anonymous User · Answer

"At work, I accidentally requested one of our shippers to load a product into the wrong trailer, once I realized the trailer was gone, we had to bring it back; it was loaded correctly this time. From this mistake, I learned always to check and to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Anonymous User · Answer

"A time I failed was when I was a freshman, and I didn't make the soccer team as I was hoping. I used that defeat as a means of getting back on my feet working extremely hard during the JV season, and the next year I made the varsity team. It was a failure that pushed me to be even better and it worked. I took my failure as a success in the end because it was the driving factor into me becoming a better soccer player."

Anonymous User · Answer

"One of my biggest failures is not graduating with a good GPA for my undergraduate. I was skipping classes while not putting in the effort to do well my freshman year. I finally got my act together because I had to repeat a course which cost my parents money. I am thankful I did and was able to complete my degree and learned from this lesson."

Anonymous User · Answer

"When I was 21 years old, I took a stockbroking exam. I had no finance background when I took the exam. I moved forward with my exam studies and successfully passed it the second go around that same year."

Anonymous User · Answer

"A few years back, I was a member of the sales team of a start-up e-commerce company. The company was painted a certain way to be able to hire new team members. After learning the business model and the entire change in the executive team, it became evident that things weren't how they explained. After deciding to pursue another career 6 months later, they closed their doors. I now ask very in-depth questions and do extensive research on the company and economic structure."

Anonymous User · Answer

"In one project, we had the opportunity to convert processes from C to java programming. We had only converted to java because of time constraints. One of our senior architects commented that this could have been done using the microservices. When a similar logic needed to be added to the GUI side in the next iteration, I worked with the team to put more effort into converting to microservices so that GUI side code became simply calling the microservices."

Anonymous User · Answer

"There were two weeks left on the project, and I failed to complete one of the tasks assigned to me. Then, almost the exact same situation occurred and I had a week left on the project and a large task to complete. This time I did thorough planning, I collaborated with the team to get their insights and feedback, and I completed the task on time and still had some time left to create documentation and hand over the results to others."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Four years ago, at my current job, there was an opportunity to move into a bucket truck which is highly sought after. I had the mentality that I was entitled to it as being the "next tech up". I was passed over by another technician who had better metrics scores than I did. I was embarrassed professionally and had a hard time overcoming the issue at first. However, I worked harder to improve the quality of my work and my knowledge, then two months ago, I was assigned a bucket truck."

Anonymous User · Answer

"The first time I took the LSATs, despite months of preparation, my score was well below the acceptable range for the schools I was looking at. Managing a career and my personal life was stressful. I resolved to pool all available resources (study guides, supplements, coaching, etc.) and persist until I achieved my goal. I spent work breaks, every minute in between tasks, and sleepless nights working to acquire the skills I needed. On my second attempt, I increased my score by 30% nation-wide compared with my peers and was accepted to several schools I applied to. This allowed me to negotiate for a bigger scholarship. The reward for persistent focus is a satisfaction unmatched by anything else."

Anonymous User · Answer

"At _____ working as business Support, I was tasked to give my recommendation to upgrade the house database software system. I underestimated the time involved to speak to the staff who were going to affect the system upgrade. Along with my daily workload, it was hard to meet the deadline, and I failed to submit it on time. But I stayed back on that day, collected all the feedback from the different department and submitted the report with my analysis.Since that incident, I never failed to estimate the work and always scheduled my work accordingly to meet the deadline."

Anonymous User · Answer

"One of my co-workers passed to me one of the content items that she was working on while she was on vacation leave; I was responsible for the quality of the content. I conducted research to study the content, but I did not double check if I clicked the right button in the application that we were using and just went ahead to publish it, due to my urgency to meet the target date. It turned out I clicked the wrong option. I felt very embarrassed, as I put my team in a bad position. I apologized for my behavior to my coworker, and my manager revised the answer immediately. From that, I learned to always double check my work, not only the questions but the answers too, before publishing an assessment, regardless of how urgent it is or how comfortable I feel."

Anonymous User · Answer

"About a month ago, a new flu shot appointment scheduler was introduced at work with little training. One particular day the scheduling system was triple and quadruple scheduling flu shots. That being said, all I was really able to do that day was immunizations. I failed to get all the prescriptions filled for the 1st time in my career. I realized I did the best I could given the situation I was put in, and the next day we all came in cleaned up together as a team."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Situation- Covid 19, sales started to dropTask- Needed to get creative in how I approached new customers and targets, with limited access Action- Looked on linked in, found target companies and checked to see if I had any mutual friends, also collaborated with co-workers on their ideas and tactics Results- Was able to rebound and creating new ways to see customers, deliveries, tailgate food"

Tell me about a time that you failed. How did you get back up again?

How to Answer: Tell me about a time that you failed. How did you get back up again?

26. Tell me about a time that you failed. How did you get back up again?

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