What do you do if you're asked about a past failure in your career during an interview?

It is best to embrace honesty and discuss past failures, nothing wrong with it as these are stepping stones to success. If anyones says, they never had any, then this may not be the right fit as I want people who have failed, because the next question will be: What did you do to resolve it? How did you overcome it? What have you learned from it? The response to these last questions shall be answered with truth, pride and with a smile. As a manager, I want to hire people who have encountered failures, face them, & resolved them because when they are faced with another great hurdle, they will have the courage & knowledge to know that these is just another stepping stone to experience and knowledge, & will tackle it with ease.

If you haven't failed, you haven't tried anything new. Be mindful of the balance in your response: the failure is simply the context... how you grew through the failure, learned, and have applied / would apply that knowledge should be where you devote the majority of your response.

Absolute honesty is the best way to go. If they can’t handle that you’ve had failures in your past, they are the wrong employer to seek a future with. Failure is a building block upon which the greatest things in the world were accomplished. Without it, we’d never know what success is.

Looking back, I feel that this is an actual great question to answer. Historically in my career though I have stumbled a few times. With that said this is what I think should be the main focus when asked this question. 1. Admit the mistake without blaming others. 2. Explain what went wrong briefly. 3. Talk about what you learned. 4. Share how you've improved since then. 5. Show that you're resilient and can learn from setbacks.

Failures teach us lessons. We may believe we can learn without failing, and there is some truth to that. However, the things that stick with us are the painful and joyous, great successes and significant failures. Is it possible to have a career without failures? When we take on challenges, sometimes we will succeed, and others fail. Denying we ever failed means we never tried anything significant. I once lamented to a supplier, mentor, and the great @Jerry Obermeyer of a failure, not during an interview but as a consequence of project activity or action. He told me, "failure only happens when we try something."

During an interview process I always ask the candidate to tell me about (1) the project / initiative he / she feels more proud of and (2) the project / initiative he / she does not like to talk about because it was a big failure. It is common to have candidates saying: "I do not remember any project which was considered a failure". Wrong answer! If you never failed is because you have not tried enough, you have not tried to do it in a different way, etc. To fail is part of the game and anyone trying to do better, to do faster and to do cheaper may fail occasionally and that must be celebrated. In case someone asks about mistakes, do not feel bad about that...be honest and show what you learned from that mistake.

Durante um processo de entrevista eu sempre pe?o ao candidato que me conte sobre (1) o projeto/iniciativa que ele / ela sente mais orgulho e (2) o projeto / iniciativa que ele / ela n?o gosta de falar porque foi um grande fracasso. é comum ter candidatos dizendo: "N?o me lembro de nenhum projeto que tenha sido considerado um fracasso". Resposta errada! Se você nunca falhou é porque você n?o tentou o suficiente, você n?o tentou fazê-lo de uma maneira diferente, etc. Falhar faz parte do jogo e quem tenta fazer melhor, fazer mais rápido e fazer mais barato pode falhar ocasionalmente e isso deve ser celebrado. Caso alguém pergunte sobre erros, n?o se sinta mal com isso... Seja honesto e mostre o que aprendeu com esse erro.

Life's greatest lessons often arise from acknowledging and learning from failure, bouncing back stronger. This is where innovation and inspiration thrive. Interviews seldom focus on easy wins; it's the challenges that shape us. When things go awry, self-reflection and resilience powers our professional growth, redefining our character and career. FOD was a difficult executive director who fired and replaced the team with more agreeable colleague’s. I failed to win FOD over, but learned valuable skills from the ordeal: effective communication, making a point, and choosing when to stay silent. There is wisdom in failure. In understanding its lesson. Let’s remember we often misjudge success and failure in the moment. To our best selves!