How to answer "How do you handle failure?" in a job interview

You’re sitting in a job interview. Things seem to be going well until the interviewer asks you...

“How do you handle failure?”

What can you say without making yourself look bad and ruining your shot at getting this job? Being prepared can help you turn this tricky question into a moment where you shine and show off how you've grown!

I know it feels like a trap, but this is the interviewer’s way of finding out if you can:

• Be resilient and solve problems

• Reflect on past decisions and take accountability

• Learn from mistakes and take steps to do better

Don't

• Lie and say “I never make mistakes!”

• Get too personal

• Give a long list of past mistakes and all the things you did wrong

• Be too negative and focus on the mistake

Do

• Show that you're self-aware and can learn from your mistakes

• Talk about a problem that is relevant and professional

• Choose one example and provide some key details and context

• Put a positive spin on things by highlighting what you learned/how you improved

It's interview day! Candidate A is applying for a role at your company's sales team, while Candidate B is interviewing for a project manager position. Both candidates are asked, "How do you handle failure?" in their respective interviews.

Candidate A: Sales Team Role

"Early in my career, I was very eager to prove myself and assured my boss that I could increase sales by 20% by the end of the quarter. More tasks were put on my plate so this prevented me from giving this goal my full attention. I did my best and was able to build some good connections and grow my client base. However, I wasn't able to reach my target. In hindsight, I also realized it was not a realistic goal to accomplish in that amount of time."

Candidate B: Project Manager Role

"One of my biggest failures was when I committed to five projects at the same time. I wanted to show initiative and contribute to my team. However, this sometimes led to delays that affected other people on my team. This experience taught me to be more realistic with my time. After that, I started tracking how much time was needed to complete project tasks. I was able to get a more accurate estimate of how long each project would take me, and I learned to manage my time better."

Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash

1. Choose a situation and describe your role to provide context. It's better to share a small mistake you solved and learned from than a big one with lasting problems.

2. Briefly describe what went wrong.

3. Reflect on what you learned from that experience.

4. Highlight how you’ve grown — mention anything you did (or would do) to solve the problem and how you improved moving forward.

Try it Out!

You are interviewing two potential candidates for a teaching position at your school. Read the following two sample answers and pick the better option:

Candidate A: Teacher Role

"As a new teacher, I taught a unit on fractions. I planned lessons that included lots of engaging learning experiences. The next day, when I was checking work that they did independently, I noticed most students were lost on their own. This experience taught me the importance of providing feedback. I learned how to include daily check-ins in my lessons, which helped me get a more accurate picture of where students were and what they needed more practice on. There was a significant improvement by the end of the unit."

Candidate B: Teacher Role

"At my previous school, I was part of a teaching team. My educational assistant and I experienced some miscommunication issues that year. It wasn't always obvious who was responsible for what. Unfortunately, this led to both of us preparing for the same activity when only one of us needed to do it. This was frustrating because one of us could have used that time to work on something else. That experience taught me the importance of clear communication. We could have saved a lot of time and avoided confusion."

Reflect on the sample answers from the quiz above. What makes one answer better than the other?

Be prepared to answer "How do you handle failure?" in your next job interview: