“Tell me about a time you failed” is one of the interview questions most feared by job seekers, up there with “Tell me about yourself“and”Why do you want to work here?“
But you can’t blame the interviewers for asking this. Stories of failure can reveal valuable insights about an applicant’s maturity, resilience, attitude, openness to learning, and ability to receive critical feedback — qualities that cannot be seen in a continue or cover letter and may not be taken by the applicant unsolicited.
Does this mean you have to answer your most epic meltdown ever?
No. Your screaming self-preservation instincts are right. Sharing an embarrassing and consequential failure during a job interview may leave a lasting negative impression, but you still don’t want to seem evasive. So, where is the safe place between a revealing response and a repellant? It can be difficult to navigate, so this is important practice beforehand.
How to Respond to “Tell Me About a Time You Failed”
Here are eight tips for answering this common behavioral interview question, along with examples of what to say (and what to avoid).
1. Focus more on learning than failure.
What the recruiter wants in the end – and they can say it clearly – is not so much your failure story but what did you learn from it and how do you turn that insight into a productive approach. So, choose a story with reflections in mind. These are often failures of realizing, appreciatedor ready against the failures of do, destructionor injuriouswhich emphasizes the consequences of failure.
To get the episodes, don’t look for the failures first. Begin by looking for moments of revelation, realization, course correction, and growth. Those moments can be presented as a “failure story” if you share them chronologically. For example:
Three years ago, we made A, but realized that the result fell short of the goal. Things just didn’t work out. Many saw this as a failure, but we also saw it as an opportunity to improve, so we did a thorough analysis and realized that B was a better tactic. We activated it, and now we see a bigger C.
Also notice how failure is immediately followed by recovery (“Many see it as a failure, but it’s also an opportunity for growth.”) Don’t let the failure and its impact linger and potentially tarnish your reputation — emphasize correcting id and let it take the spotlight.
Finally, know the difference between learning/realizing and correcting/improving. You don’t go from failure to solution magically — learning/realization is a critical step and prompts correction/improvement. Be sure to mention both steps so the interviewer knows how you traveled from failure to learning to improvement, not just failure to improve.
2. Choose a wrong calculation, not a mistake.
Everyone makes mistakes, but in a job interview, a simple mistake can be viewed as a personal mistake – damaging your reputation. In the end, the most fruitful learning is not from a mistake but from a miscalculation. When did something not go as planned? When is a strategy ineffective? When does a procedure fail the actual target? These events occur frequently in modern workplaces, do not appear to be personal or connected to errors, and are more likely than errors to produce recalibration effects. For example:
When we started the project, we made assumptions about what our customer base already knew. But when the first round did not go as planned, it became clear that we had misjudged their knowledge. To correct that problem, we conducted focus group testing before the next round to make sure our campaign aligned with the perceptions of our target audience, and I take that lesson with me today.
3. Don’t pay too much attention to failure.
Saying the word “failure” once is appropriate to show that you are addressing the question directly. Then, you can minimize the pain of a failure by calling it a “result,” “event,” or a “consequence,” which are neutral, non-negative terms. For example:
Our failure to see that problem forces us to examine that event (not a “mistake” or “mistake”) more closely and take steps to avoid that outcome (not a “failure”) in the future.
4. Find a WEnot a to me.
When a team fails as a group, that becomes more relatable (and forgivable) than an individual failing because there is consensus behind the decision making. It can also have the side benefit of strengthening your commitment to teamwork, so look for episodes involving a team or miscalculation against a personal one. Examples of “I-to-we” elevation:
“I didn’t realize” to “We didn’t realize…”
“I didn’t see that result” to “Our team didn’t see that result”
“I don’t know” to “My colleagues and I don’t know…”
5. Aim for low consequences, not high consequences.
Feel free to share a time where the consequence was small but make sure the correction is important because remember: they are more interested in your answer than what caused it. The result can still be a potential failure, but make sure it’s a possible risk, not a hypothetical one. Examples:
While we were able to correct the brochure in the next edition, we immediately added an important step to the process: perform several levels of review before we publish new material.
We almost lost the account – which was a huge setback – but we regrouped and reimagined the pitch to better suit the client’s needs.
6. Keep the failure story short.
Think of your failure as an opening act, not a featured performer. Its only purpose is to provide context and set up your story of progress and elevation, so keep it tight: “Z happened. And Y is the result. But we learned A and applied B.” When sharing the failure itself, enter and exit.
7. Don’t defend a failure.
After presenting a failure, some applicants try to limit the damage simply by defending, rationalizing, or minimizing it. But remember the point of your answer: learn, correct, and improve. Give a compelling story that shows your dedication to progressand that failure becomes a footnote, not a focus.
Examples of defensive responses where spinning only draws more attention to the failure:
“It didn’t set us back too much, but a lot of people overreacted.”
“I was right about everything – they just didn’t see it.”
“My mistake was actually beneficial in the long run because…”
8. Be mindful of the words you use.
Throughout this article, I have used different words to show how one learns from and overcomes failure. Familiarize yourself with them to avoid sound repetition:
When talking about learning, use words like:
- Learned
- gleaning
- Gained insight
- realizing
- understands
When talking about overcoming a challenge, use words like:
- Won
- progress
- raised
- corrected
When talking about reimagining a challenge, use words like:
Sample Answer
Putting all of this advice together, here’s how an effective failure story can sound.
Last year, my team introduced a new cloud-based internal filing system to the company and launched it as soon as possible. But when staff reported errors and frustrations in using it, we realized we hadn’t taken their learning curve into consideration. So, we met and worked with our internal communications team to create a company-wide education campaign, including how-to videos, Q&A opportunities with IT staff, and a dedicated email address for help. I regret that we did not make this part of our roll-out plan, but we are working hard to learn from what happened and now prioritize user education in all product roll outs. Today, 95% of our staff use the cloud platform every day, which means our files are more efficient and safer.
While no one expects job candidates to have flawless records, you don’t want to give prospective employers reasons for doubt. If you answer the “failure” question in a way that highlights your resilience and commitment to learning and growing, they’ll likely remember how you succeeded, not how you failed.
