I wouldn't volunteer the information, but I have had 3 Interviews where the question came up: "What was a difficult situation that you had to deal with, and how did you go about solving it". There will always be challenges which you will have to overcome, and the ability to deal with them calmly and effectively is a rare skill which companies find invaluable. However, opening any conversation with 'I expect to fail' could go just as much against you as in your favor. Be prepared to talk about your problem solving methodology, your reactions to stressful situations, and your any strengths that you may have in working with others. These are universal concerns for all employees. It is true that failure is inevitable, but the lessons learned from hardship are the ones that stick with you.

Questions speaking to your failures, weaknesses or difficult issues you had to handle are common in interview scenarios. It is important to give an answer covers the following key points:

• Shows your humility by taking ownership of the failure.
• Talks to what you did to fix the situation at the time.
• Speaks to what you learned to help avoid the issue happening again in the future.

I would avoid trying to use tactics to avoid giving a real answer, like the classical 'weakness is a strength' approach. The interviewer doesn't want to know how tricky you are. They want to know that you know how to handle failure and grow as a person.

I recommend you do some google searches and make a list of common questions which speak to these difficult times. Then, try to identify at least 5 times in your past where a situation occurred so that you can use to speak to the question. Try not to over-prepare for the specific interview questions. Your answer will feel more genuine if you can fit one of your chosen stories to whichever question comes up in the interview. Just keep the 3 points above in mind when picking which story will best fit the question you have been asked.

It is ok to talk failures during interviews with the objective to speak to learning experiences gained from those failures. The most successful people fail over and over again in their journey but all learn from those experiences.

Yes, you absolutely should.

Try to reframe your thinking. Instead of referring to your missteps as failures, think of them as opportunities. An interviewer is asking you about a time where you felt like you failed because they want to see how you learned from that opportunity and what actions you took to improve and move forward.

Yes. At some point during an interview you will be faced with a question that addresses failure. Be ready to give a detailed example of how you failed and most importantly what you learned from it. As a G.M that interviews people often, I know people are not perfect. What I am looking for is your attitude and thought process after you experienced failure. Also, be prepared to discuss what you would do differently the future.

Absolutely!

It shows great confidence in where you have come from and what you have achieved. Everyone talks about their successes and highlights, which is fine, and a great way to showcase your achievements. What is also important to note is there are hardly any success stories not having a background of either a string or at least one failure. It shows great strength of character if you are able to demonstrate both success and failure as learning opportunities.

You should only talk about how you overcame your weakness and learning from difficult situations, you should always present yourself in a positive manner to the interviewer.

Its always good to talk about your past experiences and how it helped you to become a better person technically, the extra effort you put in, new skills that you developed.

Yes, you should talk about your failures and what you learned from them. Don't be afraid to fail but be self reflective so you can improve.

You may approach this part as opportunities, recognizing these opportunities and speaking to them shows a lot of character and courage.

I think it's perfectly ok to discuss failures. While you want to make sure you balance this with success and accomplishments - it's great to demonstrate when you may have taken a risk and most importantly what you learned from it.

In most interviews I have been a part of there is some sort of question about a time that "things didn't go as planned" or a deadline was missed or some other "failure" that you may have experienced. When using any example think about what you learned from the experience and how you apply that to what you do going forward. Everyone knows that no one is perfect. If you are honest with what struggles you have gone through and focus how you learn from your mistakes and take action to ensure it doesn't happen in the future, a hiring manager will know that you can learn and not repeat the same mistakes multiple times.

Admitting to failures is part of being successful. The best lessons are learned through failures. It's not the failure that determines a person. It is what you do after the failure that defines you.

Everybody goes through failures and talking about failures in the interview is fine but interviewer should get a feeling or be convinced that you were about to learn something from the failure.

Don't volunteer the information, but if presented with the question; speak to the lessons that you learned from failure. Set the expectation that you are flexible, insightful, and can move forward instead of being consumed and overtaken by failure.

I would suggest don't focus so much on the failures but instead on the learning and how you bounced back. Build a story around the success after a temporary setback.

It all depends on how you have dealt with that failure. If that failure helped you in some positive aspect where you were able to learn and apply a workaround which averted that failure happening the next time, then it should be okay to talk about in the interviews only if asked. The basic reason for an interviewer to ask that question is to know if you were able to grow from that failure and how.

Great question to ask. I would recommend avoiding that question unless you are specifically asked this question . Most employers will not ask this question anyway. Sometimes by providing too much unneeded information people sometimes can talk themselves right out of a new job . Always focus on the positive things you've done at your previous job and the good feedback and relationships you've created.

Dear Deanicia,

Great Question!

A common question asked during an interview is, "Tell me about one of your weaknesses".

I believe that in many cases, a weakness can also be viewed as a strength. For instance, when I first became a leader, I would raise my hand for everything. I wanted to get involved and challenge myself.

It became evident that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. My then leader gave me great advice. "Sit on your hands"..."Give others a chance to show what they've got and you should do what you do, and do it well." We never want to spread ourselves so thin that we don't deliver, or deliver a product that is mediocre.

This said, when asked, “Tell me about one of your weaknesses”, I might respond accordingly, "One of my weaknesses is also a strength. I like to get involved so I volunteer a lot. But sometimes, I need to recognize my capacity, and let others get involved."

This response lets the hiring manager know that you are a go-getter who has excitement and enthusiasm AND that after given some great advice, you still volunteer but recognize your limits."

Hope this example helps you better understand how to position your response regarding failures or weaknesses for I believe in life that there are no failures, only lessons.

Best Wishes!!

We always learn something new from the failures or mistakes that we face regardless whether it is person or work life. How lessons learnt be utilized effectively to avoid the problem on the next time is the key to success.

There is no problem in telling such experiences to your interviewer. They would be also more happy and interested to hear such experiences and how you have overcome those. It is a measure of your talent as well how you have a handled a difficult situation.

We should not talk about the failures until you have been asked to throw light on your past. If you choose to tell about the failures with the positive learning from your experiences.

You can talk about failures if you've learnt from them. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes. But people who learn from those mistakes and strive to become better are successful.

I would suggest focus instead on building a success story after a setback, on the lesson learned and how you bounced back

You should spin your "failures" into opportunities to overcome. If you experienced a "failure," share what you learned from it and how you overcame it. If it was a failure that you could not overcome, share what the gap was that you were not able to bypass it. If you cannot elaborate, then do not include it. The key is demonstrating shared learnings and problem solving.

https://www.workitdaily.com/job-interview-talk-about-failure

While you don't want to oversell your failures, showing a potential employer you have learned something from a past mistake could actually be a good thing. As a matter of fact, I have been on a few interviews where I was directly asked about past mistakes and what I learned from them. Everyone makes mistakes and your interviewer is not ignorant of that. The important thing is what steps you have taken to prevent such mistakes from occurring again and how you have learned from the past experience. I would personally not dwell too much on this particular issue in an interview, but don't be scared to go there, rather be prepared for this question.

All the very best!

Often times, interviewers want to see that you are capable of accepting your failures and LEARNING from them. Failure is a learning experience and a normal one at that. Nobody expects you to be perfect. The most important part is talking about how you learned from that moment and how it has affected you positively in terms of your growth and progress.

Great question! I would recommend being ready to talk about a failure during an interview. The interviewer is asking to understand how you handle adversity. The way you respond speaks volumes about your attitude and how you approach life and work. Some people are crushed after a failure and need others to pick them up. Some vow never to try again, or blame others without taking any personal accountability.  Being able to share your personal story of how you made lemonade out of a lemon speaks volumes of your pluckiness and tenacity, both valuable traits to an employer.  Good luck at that next interview!